troubled test mission<\/a> that left him aboard the International Space Station far longer than expected, the space agency announced Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n\n Wilmore, along with NASA astronaut Suni Williams, piloted the first crewed flight of Boeing\u2019s Starliner spacecraft last year. The mission gained worldwide attention when the spacecraft experience several serious issues en route to the space station, including thruster outages and gas leaks.\n <\/p>\n
\n Williams and Wilmore had been expected to stay about eight days in orbit. But NASA and Boeing spent weeks attempting to pinpoint what went wrong with their vehicle and assessing whether Starliner was safe to carry the astronauts home.\n <\/p>\n
\n The space agency ultimately decided returning the duo to Earth aboard Starliner was too risky a proposition. NASA announced last August that Williams and Wilmore would join the next International Space Station crew rotation along with two other astronauts on SpaceX\u2019s Crew-9 mission and remain aboard the orbiting laboratory for several additional months.\n <\/p>\n
\n Williams and Wilmore ultimately returned home in March \u2014 more than nine months after they left Earth. Such a duration of stay in orbit is not uncommon, as astronauts routinely live on the space station for six months or longer when they serve on staff rotation missions.\n <\/p>\n
![\"Astronauts](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/53557985293-f81188fc0b-k.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Both astronauts have maintained the position that they were fully prepared for their extended stay in space, saying they each understood the risks and uncertainty associated with test flying a spacecraft for the first time.\n <\/p>\n
\n Williams and Wilmore also repeatedly sought to quash narratives that they were \u201cabandoned,\u201d \u201cstuck\u201d or \u201cstranded\u201d in space.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThat\u2019s been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck \u2014 and I get it, we both get it,\u201d Wilmore told CNN\u2019s Anderson Cooper in February. \u201cHelp us change the narrative, let\u2019s change it to: prepared and committed despite what you\u2019ve been hearing. That\u2019s what we prefer.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Wilmore\u2019s \u201ccommitment to NASA\u2019s mission and dedication to human space exploration is truly exemplary,\u201d said Steve Koerner, the acting head of NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where astronauts train, in a statement Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cHis lasting legacy of fortitude,\u201d Koerner added, \u201cwill continue to impact and inspire the Johnson workforce, future explorers, and the nation for generations.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Wilmore\u2019s departure from NASA follows the example set by Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the two astronauts who piloted the first crewed test flight of SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon capsule in 2020. That mission marked the last for both Behken and Hurley, who have each since retired.\n <\/p>\n
\n Wilmore, a Naval officer and test pilot who served in 21 combat missions, joined NASA\u2019s astronaut corps in 2000.\n <\/p>\n
\n He flew on three missions during his 25 years of service, including a mission on the space shuttle Atlantis and a trip to the space station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.\n <\/p>\n
\n Notably, upon his return to Earth on a SpaceX capsule in March, Wilmore said that he would theoretically fly aboard one of Boeing\u2019s Starliner capsules again if given the opportunity.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to rectify all the issues that we encountered. We\u2019re going to fix them, we\u2019re going to make it work,\u201d Wilmore said during a March 31 news conference. \u201cAnd with that, I\u2019d get on in a heartbeat.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Sign up for CNN\u2019s Wonder Theory science newsletter<\/a>. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link Astronaut Butch Wilmore is retiring from NASA less than five months after he returned…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":124989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-124988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114984734057153042","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}