Days after returning to Earth following their nine-month-long stay on the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams shared their reactions to the unexpected extension of their mission, Fox News reported.
They also thanked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump for their involvement in ensuring their safe return.
Wilmore and Williams spent over 280 days in space after their eight-day mission, which began in June last year, was prolonged due to technical issues with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft.
In an interview with Fox News, Williams said, “My first thought was we’ve just got to pivot,” recalling the moment when the two astronauts were told that their return would be delayed.
“If our spacecraft was going to go home based on decisions made here, and we were going to be up there ’til February, I was like, ‘Let’s make the best of it,'” she added.
Williams, who has been to the ISS before, said she loved the experience of living in space, witnessing “scientific experiments” unfolding around them, and observing the changes made to the station since her last visit.
“We planned, we trained, that we would be there for some part of a time, so we were ready to just jump into it and take on the tasks that were given to us,” she said.
Meanwhile, Wilmore spoke about coming to terms with the delay. “It’s about what this human spaceflight program is about. It’s our national goals,” he said.
He also mentioned how his family has been trained to be resilient. “And I have to wrap… my mind around, what does our nation need out of me right now? That’s going back to when we’re in the fleet, and we’re operating from the pointy end of the spear… We’re an instrument of our nation, of our national goals,” he said.
“Did I think about not being there for my daughter’s high school year? Of course. But… we’ve trained them to be resilient, my daughters and my family,” he added.
Speaking to Fox News, Wilmore acknowledged the uncertainty of space missions. “We don’t know what’s going to happen. We might not be back in eight days or whatever the plan was. Focus on that; focus on the mission. Certainly [we] deal with the personal side of it, but I can’t let that interfere with what I’m called to do at the moment,” he said.
Wilmore also stated that he trusts and respects Musk and Trump, calling their involvement “empowering and strengthening.”
When asked what he would like to say to Musk and Trump, he responded, “I respect you, I trust you. You’ve given me no reason not to trust you, either one of them. What they say, I can’t say what they say, I haven’t lived that.”
“I am grateful that our national leaders actually are coming in and taking part in our human spaceflight program, which we see is hugely important global significance, and they take an active role. Based on the past and what we see now, with them doing that, it’s refreshing, not just refreshing, it’s empowering. It’s strengthening, for our nation. I think it’s a good thing for our nation when the national leaders, especially something that’s high visibility, are involved in the process. I’m grateful for that,” he told Fox News.
Sunita Williams echoed a similar sentiment, saying that she is glad to see them “involved and taking notice.” She said that their nine-month-long stay allowed a lot of people, including Musk and Trump, to see what is happening at the ISS and “take it very seriously.”
She further said, “[It allows them to] understand that our involvement as a country, as a spacefaring nation, is really important throughout the world. It sets an example, and it shows our ability to be able to do the hard things, put people in space, operate in space, work in space, and then bring us back. It’s important, and I appreciate that.”
NASA Crew-9 astronauts Sunita Williams, Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov breathed earthly air for the first time in over nine months on Wednesday after the successful splashdown of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. They returned to Earth at 5:57 p.m. EDT on March 18.
Following their return, the White House highlighted President Trump’s role in prioritising their rescue. It stated that the astronauts had safely landed in the Gulf of Mexico and credited Musk for their return.
In a post on X, the White House wrote, “PROMISE MADE, PROMISE KEPT: President Trump pledged to rescue the astronauts stranded in space for nine months. Today, they safely splashed down in the Gulf of America, thanks to Elon Musk, SpaceX, and NASA!”
Trump had previously accused former US President Joe Biden of abandoning the astronauts in space. On March 7, Trump stated that he had authorized Musk to bring back American astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who had been at the ISS since June last year.