(CNN) – The two NASA astronauts who piloted the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule — and stayed on the space station as the craft returned to Earth — answered questions Friday for the first time in weeks.
Butch Wilmore, a Tennessee native and former Navy test pilot, said during the conversation that he and his crewmate, Suni Williams, were “very fortunate” to have the ability to stay on the International Space Station (ISS) a few extra months and return using a backup option: riding on a Crew Dragon vehicle made by SpaceX.
“There are many cases in the past where there have been no other options,” Wilmore said.
But he added that he believes astronauts and the NASA and Boeing ground teams might have eventually reached a consensus in their analysis of Starliner’s problems if they had more time.
“I think the data could have come through. We could have gotten to the point, I think, where we could have come back on Starliner,” he said. “But we just ran out of time.”
Wilmore added that time constraints are a fact of life aboard the space station, which follows a busy schedule as visiting ships drop off rotating crews of astronauts and cargo ships.
Before Starliner returned home empty on Sept. 7, NASA noted the need to clear the docking port where the vehicle had been docked to make way for other spacecraft.
During a press conference on August 24, NASA officials also indicated that Boeing disagreed with some of the space agency’s risk assessments.
There was “just a little bit of disagreement (between NASA and Boeing) in terms of the level of risk,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. “It depends on how you assess the risk… We did it a little bit differently with our crew than Boeing did.”
Starliner, which had suffered a series of helium leaks and propulsion issues en route to the ISS in June, returned to Earth without major problems, though officials reported an additional problem with one of the vehicle’s thrusters, or small motors used to maintain the vehicle’s orientation in space. But the problem did not affect the overall landing.
“I was so happy that it came home safely,” Williams said Friday of Starliner’s return. “The whole crew was up at 3 a.m., and we had it on our iPads, watching it land.”
Williams added that the teams on the ground and in space “made the right decisions.”
“It’s risky, and that’s how it goes in this business,” he said.
Adjusting to a multi-month mission
Williams and Wilmore launched aboard Starliner in early June expecting to spend only about eight days on the orbiting lab. They will now head home on a SpaceX mission scheduled to return in 2025.
Asked if he had trouble adjusting to the prospect of waiting months more to return home, Wilmore said Friday: “I’m not going to worry about it. I mean, there’s no benefit at all. So my transition was — maybe it wasn’t instantaneous — but it was pretty close.”
Williams said she misses her family and pets. She also told CNN’s Kristin Fisher that she’s disappointed to miss some family events this fall and winter, but added: “This is my happy place. I love being out here in space. It’s just fun. You know, every day you do something that’s quote-unquote work, you can do it backwards. You can do it sideways, so it adds a little bit of a different perspective.”
Wilmore said he and Williams will engage in discussions with NASA and Boeing about what needs to change to get the Starliner spacecraft back on track.
“Obviously, when you have problems like we’ve had, there are some changes that need to be made. Boeing agrees with that. We all agree with that,” Wilmore said.
Starliner’s crewed test flight was meant to “push the boundaries… And when you do things with spacecraft that have never been done before, like Starliner, you’re going to find some things,” he added. “In this case, we found some things that we just couldn’t feel comfortable putting back on Starliner.”
