Astronaut retires after returning from troubled test flight and extended stay in space

Astronaut Butch Wilmore is retiring from NASA less than 5 months after he returned from a troubled test mission that left him aboard the International Space Station far longer than anticipated, the space company announced Wednesday.

Wilmore, along with NASA astronaut Suni Williams, piloted the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft last 12 months. The mission gained worldwide consideration when the spacecraft expertise a number of critical points en route to the space station, including thruster outages and fuel leaks.

Williams and Wilmore had been anticipated to stay about eight days in orbit. But NASA and Boeing spent weeks trying to pinpoint what went improper with their vehicle and assessing whether or not Starliner was secure to carry the astronauts home.

The space company in the end determined returning the duo to Earth aboard Starliner was too dangerous a proposition. NASA announced last August that Williams and Wilmore would be part of the next International Space Station crew rotation along with two other astronauts on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission and stay aboard the orbiting laboratory for a number of extra months.

Williams and Wilmore in the end returned home in March — more than 9 months after they left Earth. Such a length of stay in orbit shouldn’t be unusual, as astronauts routinely live on the space station for six months or longer when they serve on workers rotation missions.

‘Legacy of fortitude’

Both astronauts have maintained the place that they have been absolutely ready for their extended stay in space, saying they each understood the dangers and uncertainty related with test flying a spacecraft for the first time.

Williams and Wilmore also repeatedly sought to quash narratives that they have been “abandoned,” “stuck” or “stranded” in space.

“That’s been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck — and I get it, we both get it,” Wilmore told GWN’s Anderson Cooper in February. “Help us change the narrative, let’s change it to: prepared and committed despite what you’ve been hearing. That’s what we prefer.”

Wilmore’s “commitment to NASA’s mission and dedication to human space exploration is truly exemplary,” said Steve Koerner, the performing head of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where astronauts practice, in a assertion Wednesday.

“His lasting legacy of fortitude,” Koerner added, “will continue to impact and inspire the Johnson workforce, future explorers, and the nation for generations.”

Wilmore’s departure from NASA follows the instance set by Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the 2 astronauts who piloted the first crewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule in 2020. That mission marked the last for both Behken and Hurley, who have each since retired.

Wilmore, a Naval officer and test pilot who served in 21 fight missions, joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 2000.

He flew on three missions during his 25 years of service, including a mission on the space shuttle Atlantis and a journey to the space station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Notably, upon his return to Earth on a SpaceX capsule in March, Wilmore said that he would theoretically fly aboard one of Boeing’s Starliner capsules again if given the chance.

“We’re going to rectify all the issues that we encountered. We’re going to fix them, we’re going to make it work,” Wilmore said during a March 31 news convention. “And with that, I’d get on in a heartbeat.”

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