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Join Telegram ChannelNASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore said Friday they are not worried about a months-long delay to their return to Earth and are “grateful” for the extra time in space.
“We're not surprised when plans change,” Williams, her hair standing on end, told reporters at an afternoon news conference, a week after the troubled Boeing Starliner that carried the couple to the space station in June returned to Earth on its own.
Williams and Wilmore were launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on June 5 aboard a Boeing Starliner and were only supposed to stay there for eight days before returning home in the capsule, but helium leaks and thruster problems on board raised concerns.
Ultimately, it was decided that the astronauts would extend their stay at the space station and are expected to return in February with a crew launching later this month in a SpaceX Dragon capsule that will leave two empty seats.
BOEING'S STARLINER SPACESHIP LANDS ON EARTH WITHOUT CREW
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore said Friday they are not concerned about the months-long delay in their return to Earth. (NASA)
Wilmore said of the Starliner problems that there will be “lessons to be learned” and that “things that need to change will change.”
“Boeing agrees with that. We all agree with that,” he added. “We found some things that didn't convince us to go back on the Starliner when we had other options.”
Wilmore said he and Williams felt “very fortunate” to have had the opportunity to stay longer on the ISS and return home on another ship.
He said that given enough time, he believed they could have fixed the Starliner's problems and flown it themselves, but they “simply ran out of time.”
“We had to make some decisions about the schedule,” he said.
When asked by a Fox News reporter how Wilmore's faith helped him on the space station, he cited “2 Corinthians 12:9-10,” saying that would explain how he feels about the situation.
The unmanned Boeing Starliner capsule ignites its thrusters as it lifts away from the International Space Station on September 6. (NASA via AP)
The passage says, “But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will rather boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Williams said the two men were now “fully qualified crew members” on the space station and had been training on the ground during their extended stay.
She added that the couple were “really excited to fly in two different spacecraft. … We're testers.”
“We have to turn the page and look at the next opportunity and do good for the agency,” she said of the extension.
Wilmore explained that astronauts are “tasked with dealing with all kinds of situations and we train to do that. You have to work with what the good Lord gives you.”
“It’s not what we do at NASA that matters, it’s who we are.”
Boeing Starliner detaches from space station and heads toward Earth unmanned, crew stays behind
NASA flight test crew members Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams inside the vestibule between the forward port of the International Space Station's Harmony module and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, June 13. (NASA)
Williams said there were “a lot of opinions” about whether they should return to the Starliner.
“It takes a lot of people to get us up to the space station and to get us home,” she said, but the decision was ultimately made that it was too risky to send them home aboard the Starliner.
“I'm not going to worry about things I can't control,” Wilmore told a reporter about his mental adjustment to the delay. “It may not have been instantaneous, but it was close. It was very short-lived.”
“We're professionals,” Williams agreed, adding that she was more worried about missing events with her family in the fall and winter than she was about herself.
But she said she was “so happy” [that Starliner] “I came home without any problems” on September 6.
About transitioning to a longer stay on the space station, Wilmore joked that he was told he had the “second best hair” on the station while watching Williams' long, curly locks stick up.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams inspect safety equipment aboard the International Space Station on August 9. (NASA via AP)
He added that “the transition to space and back” to Earth “is comfortable.”
“Your joints don't hurt. All the pain you have in everyday life is just not common in space,” he added of the effects of microgravity on the body.
Williams noted, however, that astronauts can “lose bone density and mass” in space, so they both focus on working out every morning before work, including cardio and a machine that helps them do deadlifts and squats.
“This is my happy place,” she said.
Wilmore said that while it has been difficult for her children to miss some milestones this year, they will all “learn from this and grow from it.”
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Williams added that in addition to doing “world-class science” on the space station, it's often “very peaceful” there, giving her time to feel “introspective” as she watches “our planet go by.”
“It just changes your perspective,” she said, adding that from the space station it's “very hard for me to imagine people on Earth not getting along.”