NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams indicated they’d be willing to travel on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft again in the future.
Wilmore, one of the two NASA astronauts that wound up spending over nine months in space instead of an originally planned week or so, said he would “get on in a heartbeat.”
“Yes, because we’re going to rectify all the issues that we encountered,” he told reporters during a Monday press conference held about two weeks after their homecoming. “We’re gonna fix them. We’re gonna make it work. Boeing’s completely committed. NASA is completely committed. And with that, I’d get on in a heartbeat.”
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft brought Wilmore and Williams to the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting some 250 miles above Earth in early June of last year and was supposed to bring them back home after roughly a week.
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The spacecraft experienced some issues as it got close to the ISS, with NASA and Boeing choosing to make the spacecraft perform an unmanned return to Earth in early September and to add them to Crew-9.
Williams on Monday was of the same opinion as Wilmore when it came to Starliner.
“I would agree,” she said in response to the question about if they’d be willing to travel in the spacecraft again in the future if presented the chance to do so.
“The spacecraft is really capable,” Williams added. “There were a couple things that need to be fixed like Butch mentioned, and folks are actively working on that. But it’s a great spacecraft, and it has a lot of capability that other spacecraft don’t have, and to see that thing successful and to be part of that program is an honor.”
In August 2024, when NASA announced Starliner would come back to Earth without the two astronauts onboard, the space agency said the spacecraft had faced “helium leaks” and “issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters.”
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A Dragon spacecraft from SpaceX was used to bring Williams and Wilmore back to Earth earlier this month with fellow Crew-9 members Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov. Williams and Wilmore clocked 286 days in space.
NASA said last week that it and Boeing were “making progress toward crew certification of the company’s CST-100 Starliner system.”
Joint teams from the space agency and Boeing are “working to resolve Starliner’s in-flight anomalies and preparing for propulsion system testing in the months ahead,” according to NASA.
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The two organizations are planning testing of “key Starliner thrusters” in New Mexico, the agency said. New helium system seal options have also been being put through testing.
“Once we get through these planned test campaigns, we will have a better idea of when we can go fly the next Boeing flight,” NASA’s Steve Sitch said in a statement. “We’ll continue to work through certification toward the end of the year and then go figure out where Starliner fits best in the schedule for the International Space Station and its crew and cargo missions.”
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