ASTRONAUTS WHO SPENT nine months longer in space than planned have told a press conference that they “were always coming back”.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams had expected to be in space for a week, but Nasa insisted it pulled the plug on their return after the Boeing Starliner capsule encountered so many problems, and sent it back empty.

SpaceX were contracted to bring them home and its capsule, following long delays due to extensive battery repairs, finally undocked from the International Space Station on 18 March.

Willmore and Williams shared the ride home with two outgoing space station crewmates, Crew-9 commander Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, who is recuperating in his home country.

Williams said she was recovering well from the ordeal, noting that she ran three miles yesterday.

With 62 hours over nine spacewalks, she set a new record: the most time spent spacewalking over a career among female astronauts.

Wilmore also said he was in good health, which he maintained throughout the mission by exercising every day.

‘Political’

While they were stuck in space, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump made unsubstantiated claims that the Biden administration held up their flight back to Earth for political reasons.

But the astronauts were careful not to add to the discourse.

“We were always coming back,” Williams said.

“I think people need to know that … There were some lessons learned too and part of that is just resilience and being able to take a turn that was unexpected.”

Wilmore and Williams quickly transitioned from guests to full-fledged station crew members, conducting experiments, fixing equipment and even spacewalking together. 

Both retired Navy captains stressed they didn’t mind spending more time in space, but they were happy to be reunited with family (and pets) upon their return.

Their colleague Nick Hague said that, when up in Space “you don’t feel the politics”.

“The politics, they don’t make it up there,” he said.

“We are working as a part of an international team that spans the globe and works with half a dozen [stations] that are talking in multiple languages … and that’s the magic of human space flight, is that we can focus on something so positive that pulls people together.”

Blame game

The astronauts shied away from attributing blame to any one person or organisation, but Wilmore acknowledged his own part in the problems.

“There were questions that I as the commander of the spacecraft that I should have asked and I did not at the time. I didn’t know I needed to.

“Maybe you could call that hindsight, but I’ll start pointing the finger, and I’ll blame me.

“Certainly there’s responsibility throughout all the programmes … responsibility with Boeing, yes. Responsibility with NASA, yes. All up and down the chain, we all are responsible.”

Wilmore is to meet with Boeing on Wednesday to discuss in greater detail what went wrong.