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Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, speaking out at a news conference for the first time since returning to Earth after an extended 286-day stay in space, said Monday they did not blame Boeing for the spacecraft problems that effectively stranded them aboard the International Space Station.In fact, asked if he would fly again aboard the Starliner, Wilmore said, “Yes, because we’re going to rectify all the issues that we encountered. We’re going to fix them. We’re going to make it work. Boeing is completely committed. NASA is completely committed, and with that, I’d get on in a heartbeat.”Added Williams: “I would agree. The spacecraft is really capable. There were a couple things that need to be fixed … and folks are actively working on that, but it is a great spacecraft, and it has a lot of capability that other spacecraft don’t have. To see that thing successful and to be part of that program is an honor.”Asked if he blamed Boeing for the propulsion system helium leaks and thruster problems that ultimately led NASA to bring the Starliner down without its crew, extending their stay aboard the space station from eight days to more than nine-and-a-half months, Wilmore said, “That is a question that I cannot answer in a couple of comments. But I’ll start with me.””There were questions that I, as the commander of the spacecraft, that I should have asked, and I did not. At the time, I didn’t know I needed to. And maybe you could call that hindsight, but I’ll start and point the finger and I’ll blame me. I could have asked some questions and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide.
“So blame, I don’t like that term, but certainly there’s responsibility throughout all the programs and certainly you can start with me. Responsibility with Boeing? Yes. Responsibility with NASA? Yes. All the way up and down the chain. We all are responsible. We all own this.”Their repeatedly extended mission generated enormous attention in the wake of problems with Starliner, NASA’s decision three months after launch to keep them in orbit until this year, and comments from President Trump claiming the astronauts had been “abandoned” in space by the Biden administration.Williams denied feeling “abandoned” or “stuck” during an interview with CBS News in February, saying she was “honored … to be here and a part of the team” doing “world-class science.” They said much of the same Monday. But they avoided answering questions about the political aspects of the mission.Wilmore and Williams returned to Earth on March 18, accompanied by two outgoing station fliers who were wrapping up their own six-month stay aboard the lab. The Starliner astronauts, like all returning station fliers, began physical therapy back at the Johnson Space Center to help them readjust to gravity.
They both looked fit and were in obviously good spirits talking with reporters Monday. In fact, Williams said she went for a 3-mile run on Sunday.
NASA astronauts Suni Williams, left, and Butch Wilmore laugh while answering questions during NASA’s SpaceX Crew 9 postflight news conference at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, March 31, 2025.
Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images
How long were the astronauts stuck in space?By the time they splashed down off Florida’s Gulf Coast, Wilmore and Williams had spent 286 days in space. While the extended mission was much longer than originally planned, it ranks sixth on the list of longest flights by U.S. astronauts.The record is held by astronaut Frank Rubio, whose planned six-month stay aboard the space station was extended to just over a full year — 371 days — because of coolant leaks in the Russian Soyuz that carried him to orbit. He came back to Earth aboard a replacement Soyuz in September 2023.Even though his record remains unbroken, problems with the Boeing Starliner that carried Wilmore and Williams to space triggered extensive coverage in the United States that far exceeded the coverage of Rubio’s even longer mission.Why were the astronauts stuck in space so long?Three years after the space shuttle’s retirement in 2011, NASA awarded multibillion-dollar contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to build ferry ships to carry astronauts to and from the space station. SpaceX has now launched 11 piloted Crew Dragon flights for NASA and five purely commercial missions. A sixth commercial launch is currently scheduled for Monday night.But Boeing ran into multiple problems with its Starliner that required two unpiloted test flights before Wilmore, who is 62, and Williams, 59, both former military test pilots, were finally cleared to launch last June 5 on the spacecraft’s first piloted mission after engineers decided a small helium leak in the ship’s propulsion pressurization system would not get worse.
The astronauts successfully docked with the space station the next day, but the Starliner experienced additional helium propulsion system leaks and several maneuvering jets did not produce the expected thrust.While the flight originally was expected to last about eight days, NASA and Boeing carried out weeks of tests and analysis to determine what caused the problems and whether the spacecraft could be trusted to safely bring its crew back to Earth.By August, Boeing managers were convinced engineers understood the problems and the crew could, in fact, safely come home in the Starliner.But NASA managers eventually ruled out that option and decided to keep the astronauts aboard the station until early this year when they could hitch a ride home aboard a Crew Dragon. That spacecraft was launched last September with just two crew members on board, along with two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams.The Starliner, meanwhile, successfully returned to Earth earlier in September, kicking off hands-on troubleshooting and ongoing work to prepare for the eventual resumption of flights.Wilmore, Williams, Crew 9 Dragon commander Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov originally planned to return to Earth in February. But the Crew 10 Dragon needed to carry their replacements to the station ran into problems of its own and the flight was delayed to the end of March.Those problems, and the threat of additional delays, prompted NASA to switch the Crew 10 fliers to a different Crew Dragon, eventually moving its launch up to March 12, paving the way for Crew 9 to head home.
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William Harwood
Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News.
