Two astronauts who were left stranded on board the International Space Station for nine months have revealed they were almost lost in space forever when their Boeing Starliner ship malfunctioned.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) On June 5, 2024, and were only supposed to be in orbit for eight days.
Instead, following a slew of setbacks, a simple test of Boeing’s Starliner, turned into a months-long mission to rescue them.
Now, speaking following their dramatic return to earth last month, the pair of astronauts revealed that their capsule faced a slew of issues from the moment it set off from earth and almost left them lost in space as they approached the ISS.
As Wilmore took control of the ship on approach to the ISS, the pair lost four thrusters and thus their ability to steer the vessel.
Sunni Williams, NASA astronaut returns to earth after 9-month delay. Picture: Getty
At that moment, the rules indicate Wilmore should have turned around and returned to earth, but he knew that could lead to a total loss of control and leave them lost in space.
Speaking to Arstechnica, he said: “I don’t know that we can come back to Earth at that point.
“I don’t know if we can. And matter of fact, I’m thinking we probably can’t.”
In a split-second decision, Wilmore was forced to make the risky to dock in the ISS.
“We don’t know exactly what is happening, why the thrusters are falling off, and what the solution would be,” Williams added.
Wilmore continued: “I don’t know that we can come back to Earth.
“So there we are, loss of 6DOF control, four aft thrusters down, and I’m visualizing orbital mechanics. The space station is nose down.
“So we’re not exactly level with the station, but below it. If you’re below the station, you’re moving faster. That’s orbital mechanics. It’s going to make you move away from the station.
“I’m doing all of this in my mind. I don’t know what control I have. What if I lose another thruster? What if we lose comm? What am I going to do?”
The problem was eventually solved back on Earth, as NASA rebooted the thrusters.
“I did this little happy dance,” Williams said.
“One, of course, just because I love being in space and am happy to be on the space station and with great friends up there.
“Two, just really happy that Starliner docked to the space station. My feeling at that point in time was like, ’Oh, phew, let’s just take a breather and try to understand what happened.”
In a press conference last week, Williams said she was surprised by the public interest in their delayed space mission.
"Life goes on up there. I mentioned today that we pivoted and became [ISS] crew members."
"You maybe sort of get tunnel-visioned into doing your job," she continued.
"We were just really focused on what we were doing. The world doesn’t revolve around us but we revolve around it."
She added: "I don’t think we were aware to the degree [people were interested], pretty honoured and humbled by the fact of when we came home, it was like ’wow there are a lot of people’."
Early on 18 March, a SpaceX crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station, delivering the replacements for the two stuck astronauts and allowing them to begin their journey home. The pair shortly splashed down off the coast of Florida.
The astronauts revealed their reactions to learning they would be stranded in space.
"My first thought was we just gotta pivot," Williams told Fox News.
"If this was the destiny, if our spacecraft was gonna go home based on decisions made and we were gonna be up there until February, I was like ’okay, let’s make the best of it."
"We were ready to just jump into it and take on the tasks that were given to us," she said.
NASA astronaut Suni Williams interacts with the Astrobee robotic free-flyer, equipped with gecko-inspired adhesive arms, aboard the ISS’s Kibo module. Picture: Alamy
Wilmore admitted he thought about his family when he discovered they would be in orbit for an extended period.
"It’s not about me," he said.
"It’s about what this human spaceflight program is about. It’s our national goals."
"And did I think about not being there for my daughter’s high school year? Of course. But compartmentalize. We’ve trained them to be resilient."
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore (L) and Suni Williams walk out of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center on May 6, 2024 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Picture: Getty
The pair repeatedly told Fox News they did not feel stuck, abandoned or stranded.
"Any of those adjectives, they’re very broad in their definition," Wilmore asserted.
"So okay, in certain respects we were stuck, in certain respects maybe we were stranded, but based on how they were couching this — that we were left and forgotten and all that — we were nowhere near any of that at all.
"We didn’t get to come home the way we planned. So in one definition we’re stuck. But in the big scheme of things, we weren’t stuck. We were planned, trained."
Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, landed in the water off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Picture: Alamy
He added that Boeing did not fail them, and laughing a complex system into space naturally has its challenges.
"The spacecraft is pretty complicated in the way they’ve integrated all the different types of systems together," Williams said.
"This is the most robust spacecraft we have in the inventory. There’s nothing that can do everything that Starliner can do," Wilmore said.
The rescue of both astronauts became embroiled in what can only be described as political football, with Donald Trump pledging his hard-right billionaire ally Elon Musk could rescue them at any moment, while Joe Biden accused Musk of "abandoning" them.
Speaking in February, Butch told CNN: “We don’t feel abandoned, we don’t feel stuck, we don’t feel stranded. I understand why others may think that … if you’ll help us change the rhetoric, help us change the narrative, let’s change it to ‘prepared and committed’, that’s what we prefer.”
As the astronauts returned to earth off the coast of Florida, in an extraordinary turn, a school of curious dolphins swam up to the capsule, as relief teams worked to open it up and get the pair out.
When the SpaceX relief team arrived, Wilmore swung open the space station’s hatch and then rang the ship’s bell as the new arrivals floated in one by one on Sunday and were greeted with hugs and handshakes.
"It was a wonderful day," Ms Williams told mission control. "Great to see our friends arrive."
Butch and Suni returning vessel undocked from the orbiting outpost at 1.05am ET (5.05am GMT) on Tuesday 18 March and began its 17-hour descent to Earth.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 Returns To Earth. Picture: Getty
The Boeing Starliner capsule encountered so many problems that NASA insisted it returned to Earth empty, leaving its test pilots behind to wait for a SpaceX lift.
Their ride arrived in late September with a downsized crew of two and two empty seats reserved for the leg back. But more delays resulted when their replacements’ new capsule needed extensive battery repairs.
An older capsule took its place, pushing up their return by a couple of weeks to mid-March
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