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The two NASA astronauts who piloted the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule — and stayed behind on the space station as the shuttle returned to Earth — took questions Friday for the first time in weeks.
Butch Wilmore, a Tennessee native and former Navy test pilot, said during the interview that he and co-worker Suni Williams are “very fortunate” to have the ability to stay a few more months on the International Space Station and come home with a backup. Option: Riding in the Crew Dragon vehicle made by SpaceX.
“There have been many cases in the past where there were no other options,” Willmore said.
Still, he added, he hopes the astronauts and NASA and Boeing teams on the ground may have eventually reached a consensus on analyzing the Starliner’s problems.
“I think the data could have gotten there. I believe we could have gotten back on the Starliner, we could have gotten to the point,” he said. “But we simply ran out of time.”
Wilmore added that time constraints are a fact of life on the space station, which keeps a busy schedule as the shuttle unloads a rotating crew of astronauts and cargo ships.
Before Starliner returned home empty on September 7, NASA noted the need to clear the docking port where the rover was attached to other ships.
During an Aug. 24 news conference, NASA officials also indicated that Boeing disagreed with some of the space agency’s risk assessments.
“There was a slight disagreement (between NASA and Boeing) as to the level of risk,” said Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial group program manager. “It depends on how you assess the risk. … We did it a little differently with our crew than Boeing did.
Starliner, which suffered a series of helium leaks and propulsion problems en route to the ISS in June, returned to Earth without major problems — officials reported an additional problem with the vehicle’s propulsion or small engines. Should be vehicle oriented in space. But this issue did not affect the overall landing.
“I was very happy to get home without any problems,” Williams said after returning to the Starliner on Friday. “The whole crew was up at 3 a.m. and we had it on our iPads and watched it land.”
Teams on the ground and in space “made the right decisions,” Williams said, adding, “It’s risky, that’s how business goes.”
Williams and Willmore launched aboard Starliner in early June, expecting to spend only about eight days in the orbiting lab. They will now return home on a SpaceX mission scheduled to return in 2025.
Asked if he had trouble adjusting to the prospect of waiting months to go home, Wilmore said Friday, “I’m not going to worry about it. I mean, there’s no benefit to it. So my transition — maybe it wasn’t immediate — but it was pretty close.”
Williams told CNN’s Christine Fisher that she missed her family and pets and was disappointed to miss some family events this fall and winter, but added: “This is my happy place. I love being here in space. It’s funny. You know, every day you do something like work, quote, quote, and you can reverse it. You can do it sideways, so it adds a little different perspective.
Wilmore said he and Williams will engage in discussions with NASA and Boeing about what needs to change to get the Starliner shuttle back on track.
“Obviously, when you have issues like we’ve had, some changes have to be made. Boeing is on board with that. We’re all on board with that,” Wilmore said.
The Starliner’s crew test flight was “pushing the edge of the envelope. …And when you’re doing things with the spacecraft that haven’t been done before, like Starliner, you’re going to discover some things,” he added. We found out.”
