NASA Astronauts Comment on Starliner’s Performance

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams shared their thoughts on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft regarding the extension of their stay on the International Space Station (ISS). Wilmore and Williams were launched last month from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station aboard ULA’s Atlas V rocket.

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In their remarks, the astronauts praised Starliner’s performance and emphasized that Starliner could return to Earth at any desired time. The astronauts commented on Starliner’s performance during its journey to the space station in a press conference.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams spoke about Starliner, saying, “After separating from Atlas V, we initiated the operational controls of the spacecraft. During this time, Starliner’s performance was excellent.”

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On the second day, the crew had to manually control the spacecraft because Starliner’s thrusters developed problems. Despite the decrease in the spacecraft’s control capability, Wilmore said its performance was still impressive.

Williams explained that once docked to the station, Starliner was used as a safe haven in case of an emergency on the space station. Later in the day, NASA and Boeing officials shared more details about Starliner’s return. Steve Stich from NASA stated that teams were testing the thrusters on Earth to understand the errors in these systems during Starliner’s approach to the ISS. He mentioned that Starliner could return to Earth before SpaceX’s Crew 9 mission begins, but the exact timing would be determined once NASA and Boeing completed the ground tests.