NASA-Boeing astronaut Butch Wilmore on Starliner’s return: ‘We found some things we just could not get comfortable with’

NASA-Starliner astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore spoke about their space station mission for the first time after the Starliner spacecraft successfully returned to Earth earlier in September. 

In a video press conference late Friday, Sunita Williams said she is loving her time up in space, while Wilmore said there have been "some trying times" since the start of the mission in space. He also explained why Starliner returned to Earth without him and Sunita Williams.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are still in space. The duo went up to space on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft Calypso but will come back home on a SpaceX craft in February 2025. Starliner, which faced technical issues during its spaceflight, landed back on Earth on September 7.

Here are the top quotes from Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore's media interaction on Friday:

1. 'Trying times': Wilmore said, "It's quite an evolution over the last three months. We have been involved from the beginning in all the processes of assessing our spacecraft Calypso, and it was trying at times. There were some tough times all the way through.

2. 'We found some things': Butch explained why Starliner left the International Space Station without him and Sunita Williams. “In this case, we found some things we could just not get comfortable with putting us back in the Starliner when we have other options....we were very fortunate that we had space station and that we had other options to stay and come back in different way if that's what the data showed.”

3. 'We ran out of time': Butch said he believes they could have got to the point where they could have returned on Starliner, but "we simply ran out of time" because there were tests and assessments that needed to be done. He said officials had to make the decision on a timeline as the Starliner mission was a short-term mission and a long-duration mission. "Had we had a little more time, we could have done it...we did not have enough time to get to the end of the runway where we could say that we would come back at it.

4. Changes needed in Starliner: Willmore said, "We have lessons learnt that we will go through. We will have discussions" with NASA and Boeing regarding what needs to change in order to get Starliner back on track. He said things that need to change will change. "...when you have issues like those we had, there are some changes that need to be made...Boeing's on board with that. We are all on board with that," he said.

His statement came days after NASA admitted to having a 'difference of opinions' with Boeing during a discussion over the return plan for astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore. "I would say the teams were very split…," Steve Stich, manager, Commercial Crew Program, NASA Kennedy Space Center, shad said earlier

5. 'This is my happy place': Sunita Williams said, "This is my happy place. I love being up here in space. It's fun...it adds a little different perspective." She said it's very peaceful in space a lot of times. "It's really difficult for me to imagine people on Earth not getting along...it's the one planet we have and we should all really be happy that we are there together...," she added.