From days to months: NASA astronauts reflect on their unexpected extended stay in orbit

A routine mission that was only meant to last eight days turned into nine months - a never-ending night in which NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore must have wondered more than once whether they would ever return to Earth and see their families again.

On June 5, 2024, Williams and Wilmore boarded Starliner-1, a two-person flight test (Boe-CFT) headed to the International Space Station (ISS) where it docked the following day.

But not without problems. While attempting to dock, it was apparent that there were serious technical issues with the spacecraft’s propulsion system. Five of Starliner’s 28 thrusters were disabled after they started to overheat. Four recovered, but were unable to reach full power and the capsule docked in autopilot mode.

But Williams and Wilmore now faced an even bigger problem - how would they make it back home?

Three weeks into their mission, NASA announced that until Starliner’s thruster problems were resolved, it was too risky to attempt for the capsule to undock from the ISS and begin its return to Earth.

Almost 10 months stranded in space

Stranded and alone, the Starliner crew privately considered the worst-case scenario: “Would we be able to make it back? We didn’t know,” Wilmore admitted in an interview with the BBC, adding that the possibility they might never see their families again “definitely went through our minds”.

Both kept their darkest thoughts to themselves, their training helping them to overcome each problem that arose. “You sort of read each other’s mind and know where we’re going with all the failures,” Suni Williams explained. “These were not expected. At the same time, you know, we’re like, what do we have? What can we do?”

NASA astronauts finally return home

Their ordeal finally came to an end in March of this year when they were picked up by a SpaceX Dragon on a Crew-9 mission to the ISS.

Now back on tierra firma, Williams and Wilmore gave their first interview since their return to the BBC. “We knew nobody was going to just let us down... we knew everybody had our back and was looking out for us,” Williams said.

Readjusting has taken time, as Williams explains: “Just getting gravity back on your head and your back and all that kind of stuff is a little bit painful”.

Future Starliner missions

NASA has three Starliner missions lined up, although no dates have been slated. While Williams and Wilmore won’t be taking part in the next one, they both say they would have no qualms about participating in the Starliner-2 mission or future ones.

“We are very positively hopeful that there will be opportunities to fly the Boeing Starliner in the future,” Wilmore said. Williams concluded, “It’s a very capable spacecraft. It has unique capabilities compared to other spacecraft that are out there that are really great for future astronauts to fly.”

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