Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are hoping to set the record straight again after an extended trip to the space station. Sunita “Suni” Williams and Butch Wilmore had launched to the orbiting laboratory last summer on the first crewed test flight of the Boeing Starliner. They had trouble docking the spacecraft due to issues with its thrusters and helium leaks. It was determined to be too risky for them to return, and the capsule returned to Earth without them in September.
![[Wilmore and Williams have asked to change the narrative about their extended trip on the International Space Station. They said they don’t feel ‘stuck’ or ‘stranded’]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/02/14/19/58/GettyImages-2155551243.jpeg)
What was once just a ten-day mission, has now turned into an unexpected months-long odyssey. Still, the pair say they don’t feel as “stuck” as everyone else seems to think they are. He and Williams were also asked about claims from President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk that they had been left in the lurch by the Biden administration. “But that is, again, not what our human spaceflight program is about. We don’t feel abandoned, we don’t feel stuck, we don’t feel stranded.”.
Wilmore also pleaded with people to help change that narrative, to say they were “committed” to the trip and not just stuck in space. “That’s what we prefer,” he said. Williams’ message was similar to one they had given before about their situation. “Butch and I knew this was a test flight,” she said, noting that they “knew that we would probably find some things (wrong with Starliner) and we found some stuff, and so that was not a surprise.”.
