NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore has revealed the harrowing experience of fearing for his life and that of his crewmate, Sunita Williams, during their nine-month mission aboard Boeing's Starliner capsule. Wilmore recounted a critical moment approaching the International Space Station (ISS) when multiple thrusters on the Starliner malfunctioned, leaving him struggling for control.
Wilmore, commander of the mission, described the capsule's thrusters firing erratically, sounding like a "machine gun." Four of the eight primary thrusters failed, and a fifth experienced reduced thrust. This significantly impacted the spacecraft's ability to maneuver, what Wilmore described as losing "one of our degrees of freedom."
"At the controls, I felt the spacecraft becoming harder to maneuver and heard its thrusters firing rapidly," Wilmore said in an interview on The Jeremy Boreing Show. "I can feel it. It's nothing like it was the day before as far as maintaining control of the spacecraft. It even sounds different."
He admitted that during this critical phase, he feared the spacecraft would not be able to return them safely to Earth. "We got to get there. If we can't get there, I'm not sure we can make it back to Earth like this," he stated. "So, there's that thought of not surviving, right?"
Even before docking with the ISS, Wilmore had concluded that the Starliner was not a viable option for their return journey. "We ain't coming home in the spacecraft," he recalled thinking. "We're going to be there a while."
Wilmore and Williams launched in July 2024 for what was planned as an eight-day mission to the ISS. However, persistent issues with the Starliner's propulsion system rendered the capsule unsafe for crewed travel. While NASA initially maintained the Starliner's capability for return, Wilmore expressed skepticism due to the inability to inspect the critical thrusters.
"The whole time we knew the chances were slim to none, regardless of what we found out, just because you can't inspect the thrusters," Wilmore explained. "You can't go out on a spacewalk and check them out. They're not built that way. So, there's no way we could really know for sure what the problem was."
After spending nine months aboard the ISS, Wilmore and Williams were eventually brought back to Earth in March 2025, not in the Starliner, but aboard SpaceX's Crew-9 mission. The Starliner capsule itself returned autonomously to Earth without crew in September 2024.
Wilmore also shared his frustration regarding certain processes and decisions related to the Starliner mission that he was not privy to at the time. Despite these frustrations and moments of fear, he credited his faith with helping him maintain contentment while aboard the space station. "And I’m only content because the Lord has imparted his word into me and I know it. And his word is true," he said, while acknowledging the need to compartmentalize fear to focus on his duties.
