Stranded Astronaut Says He Just Wasn't "Comfortable" Getting "Back in the Starliner" After Safety Issues

"In this case, we found some things that we just could not get comfortable with putting us back in the Starliner."

Uncomfortable

Last month, NASA declared that Boeing's plagued Starliner was too risky to use for the return of still-stranded astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

Following months of investigations into malfunctioning thrusters and helium leaks, the space agency came to the conclusion that the pair should hitch a ride on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in February instead.

And despite Starliner's uncrewed "bullseye landing" and a "darn near flawless" reentry earlier this month, it sounds like Wilmore and Williams have few regrets about ditching Starliner.

"Obviously, when you have issues like we’ve had, there’s some changes that need to be made," Wilmore said during a Friday news conference streamed from the International Space Station. "Boeing’s on board with that. We’re all on board with that."

"When you do things with spacecraft that have never been done before, just like Starliner, you’re going to find some things," he added. "In this case, we found some things that we just could not get comfortable with putting us back in the Starliner."

Mission Creep

Wilmore said that given more time to investigate the issues plaguing Starliner, there could've been a chance of taking the capsule back home.

"I think the data could have gotten there," Wilmore said. "We could have gotten to the point, I believe, where we could have returned on Starliner. But we just simply ran out of time."

It must've been a strange feeling: watching not just your ride to space but also your spacesuit undocking the station without you.

"I was so happy it got home with no problems," Williams said during the news conference. "The whole crew got up at 3 in the morning, and we had it up on our iPads, watching it land."

Nonetheless, ground control "made the right decisions," she added. "It’s risky, and that’s how it goes in the business."

Instead of spending just eight days on board the station — the originally scheduled length of their Starliner mission — the pair will spend a total of eight months on board the orbital lab.

But the pair are taking the massive extension in stride.

"I’m not gonna fret over it," Wilmore said. "I mean, there’s no benefit to it at all. So my transition was — maybe it wasn’t instantaneous — but it was pretty close."

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