'We were always coming back': Astronauts say they'd board Starliner again after 9-month stay at ISS
Grilled cheese, taking blame and attending church in space − NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams answered questions from the press Monday nearly two weeks after finally planting their feet back on Earth.
Selected for the first crewed flight test of Boeing's Starliner, Wilmore and Williams arrived in June at the International Space Station for what was meant to be a brief orbital stay. Instead, because of issues with the Starliner, the pair remained on the space station for nine months, much longer than the roughly 10 days they were supposed to be there.
They were accompanied at the news conference by Nick Hague who, along with Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, departed in September 2024 to join Wilmore and Williams and eventually accompany them on their return to Earth.
Despite it all, said Wilmore and Williams, they would get back on Starliner "in a heartbeat."
Earth foods, going to church and working out in zero gravity
The first thing the astronauts did after getting home? Hug their loved ones and, in Williams' case, her dogs. The pair was also asked what Earthly food they were most excited to bite into upon their return, to which Williams said a simple grilled cheese.
"My father was a vegetarian, so I had a good grilled cheese sandwich when I got home. Reminded me of family," she said.
Luckily, they didn't have to wait long to do those things. Their readjustment to gravity and being back in Earth's atmosphere was remarkably fast, they said, partially thanks to a team of nutritionists and strength, conditioning and rehabilitation specialists that kept them healthy and prepared to come home.
"They send us protocols to work out and I can tell you, I'm not as young as I used to be, but I was stronger on space station, doing more weight and more reps on exercises than I have in my entire life because this group of professionals worked to get us strong, strong, stronger. We're trying to minimize atrophy, minimize bone loss," Wilmore explained.
"It's an adjustment when we get back and they're here right with us from day one when we landed," Williams said of the nutrition and training specialists. "I sneakily went for a run yesterday but that's as a result of their hard work."
"Who would even imagine you come back from roughly 10 months in space and within a week you run 2 miles at an eight-minute pace," Wilmore added. "These folks get us ready."
The pair kept up other Earthly routines in space as well, such as Wilmore digitally attending his home church from the space station.
"My pastors are the finest pastors on or off, in this case, the planet and to tie in and to worship with my church family was vital, I mean it's part of what makes me go," he said. "It was invigorating, it was part of what I need."
While aboard the space station, Hague, Williams, and Wilmore completed over 900 hours of research while in orbit, conducting more than 150 unique experiments, according to NASA.
"The crew studied plant growth and development, tested stem cell technology to help patients on Earth, and went on a spacewalk to collect samples from the station’s exterior, studying the survivability of microorganisms in space," the agency said. They also held 30 ham radio events with students worldwide and conducted a student-led genetic experiment, "helping to inspire the next generation of explorers."
Wilmore addresses blame for Starliner mishap
When asked where and with whom they placed the blame for the bumps in the mission, Wilmore was quick to take responsibility.
"I'll start with me, there were questions that I, as the commander of the spacecraft, that I should have asked and I did not. At the time, I didn't know I needed to. And maybe you could call that hindsight but I'll start and point the finger and I'll blame me," he said. "I could have asked some questions and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide ... certainly there's responsibilities throughout all the programs and certainly you can start with me."
"All the way up and down the chain, we were responsible, we all own this," he said of Boeing and NASA as well. "We're not going to look back. ... We're going to look forward and say, 'what are we going to use, our lessons learned, from this whole process' and make sure we are successful in the future."
When asked if they would travel on Starliner again, the pair said yes, as they plan to rectify the issues they encountered during its last voyage.
And while there was an initial plan to get them to and from the space station in just about a week, there were also preparations for the many possible outcomes that come with a space mission, which Wilmore described as a road that is almost always "curvy" rather than linear.
"We came prepared ... and we were ready to do that pivot," Williams said. "We were always coming back."
Politics don't make much noise up in space
In response to multiple questions about the recent politicization of their extended stay, the astronauts said simply that politics don't breach the sound barrier.
"When we're up there operating in space, you don't feel the politics, you don't feel any of that, it's focus strictly on mission," Hague said. "The politics, they don't make it up there. ... We just figure out how to make it happen and that's the magic of human space flight."
President Donald Trump and Elon Musk repeatedly tried to claim credit for the astronauts returning home this month. However, the plan to bring them back had been in motion since September, two months before Trump had been elected.
What happened with the Boeing Starliner?
Wilmore and Williams arrived in June at the space station for what was meant to be a brief stay.
Instead, that demonstration came to an ignominious end when NASA decided the troubled Boeing vehicle wasn't up to the task of transporting its crew back to Earth. The Starliner, which had encountered helium leaks and propulsion issues that engineers discovered when it reached the station, undocked in September without Wilmore and Williams and departed for a parachute landing in the New Mexico desert.
NASA ultimately decided to keep Williams and Wilmore in orbit for a few extra months rather than launch an emergency mission to return them to Earth in order to keep the space station fully staffed. In September, the SpaceX Crew-9 mission launched as planned, but with one crucial change: Just two astronauts, Hague and Gorbunov, headed to the station instead of four to leave two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams.
In the months since, the original crew of the Starliner has been integrated into Expedition 72 at the station while awaiting the completion of the Crew-9 mission in order to return home.
The astronauts, who have both now completed three trips to orbit, regularly spoke about relishing the extra time in the cosmos, including in an exclusive interview in January with Paste BN. Wilmore and Williams also sought to dispel the notion that they were "stuck" at the station, insisting that the extended stay is simply part of the job.
"We came up prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short," Wilmore said in March when he, Hague and Williams appeared from the station for a news conference.
When did the Starliner astronauts land with SpaceX Crew-9?
Joining the Starliner astronauts for the water landing off the Florida coast on March 18 were Hague and Gorbunov – the two Crew-9 astronauts who originally flew aboard the spacecraft to the space station in September.
The splashdown came after Wilmore and Williams boarded the Dragon Freedom with the Crew-9 team to undock from the space station's Harmony module, a port and passageway onto the station.
SpaceX Engineering Manager Kate Tice said during NASA's official livestream that the Dragon successfully landed "in the Gulf of America off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida."