A US astronaut, currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS), shared that Boeing’s Starliner could have potentially returned him to Earth, but they ran out of time to address the spacecraft’s issues. Last week, Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams watched as the Starliner, which they had arrived on three months ago, returned to Earth without them.
“We could have gotten to the point, I believe, where we could have returned on Starliner, but we just simply ran out of time,” Wilmore said during a video press conference on Friday.
On June 5, Wilmore and Williams launched aboard the Starliner for its first crewed mission, initially planned to last only eight days in orbit. However, technical problems extended their stay, and they are now expected to remain in space for eight months.
Last month, NASA announced that Williams and Wilmore will return in February with SpaceX’s Crew-9 flight. While Wilmore stated he wasn’t disappointed with the extended stay, he mentioned there were differences of opinion regarding the Starliner’s readiness for their return.
“In this case, we found some things that we just could not get comfortable with putting us back in the Starliner when we had other options,” Wilmore explained.
Despite the delay, Williams expressed her relief that the Starliner landed safely without them on board. “We wanted to take Starliner to the completion and land back on land at home, but you know, you have to turn the page and look at the next opportunity,” she remarked.
Both astronauts highlighted the support they’ve received, helping them adjust to the extended mission. Wilmore summed it up by saying, “I can sum it up in one word, and that’s resiliency. We are tasked—and we learn, and we train—to handle all types of situations.”
