NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were in good spirits as they discussed their ongoing mission and answered questions from the media this afternoon.
"It's been quite an evolution over the last three months. We've been involved from the beginning in assessing our spacecraft Calypso and it was trying at times. There were some tough times. All the way through. As commander, you certainly don't want to see it go off without ya," shared Wilmore. "But that's where we wound up."
When asked what they look forward to on the rest of their mission, Williams responded, "We look forward to being part of the crew that's here as a part of Expedition 71. They're a great bunch of people and we've tried to jump in and do whatever we can. We're here with our friends and I think that's a key part of being on the International Space Station and just doing the work. We're here with our friends. We've got a ride home, and we're looking forward to doing a lot of stuff on the ISS."
Watch their interview below.
LIVE: From the @Space_Station, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams discuss their ongoing mission and answer questions from the media: https://t.co/ytifGf22Gn
Low-Earth Orbit — In a long-awaited news conference from space, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will give reporters an update from aboard the International Space Station.
The Earth to space call is set for 2:15 p.m. Eastern, Sept. 13. Coverage of the event will stream on NASA+ and the agency's website.
Wilmore and Williams launched aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 5 for its first crewed flight, arriving at the space station the following day.
After the agency's decision to return Starliner uncrewed, the duo will remain on the space station as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew and return home in February 2025 aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with two other crew members on NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
"Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine. A test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in August.
Tune in on Friday, Sept. 13, as astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams take part in a live Q&A from the @Space_Station.
NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters on June 6 as Starliner approached the space station. Since then, engineering teams completed a significant amount of work, including reviewing a collection of data, conducting flight and ground testing, hosting independent reviews with agency propulsion experts, and developing various return contingency plans.
NASA said the uncertainty and lack of expert concurrence didn’t meet the agency’s safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight, thus prompting NASA leadership to move the astronauts to the Crew-9 mission.
Starliner departed from the space station earlier this month, and made a safe, controlled autonomous re-entry to Earth.
Annie Gimbel
