NASA’s Butch Wilmore retires from astronaut corps after spending 9 unexpected months in space

Astronauts Suni Williams (left) and Butch Wilmore train at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in 2022. Robert Markowitz/NASA via CNN Newsource

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

Wilmore, along with NASA astronaut Suni Williams, piloted the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft last year. The mission gained worldwide attention when the spacecraft experience several serious issues en route to the space station, including thruster outages and gas leaks.

Williams and Wilmore had been expected to stay about eight days in orbit. But NASA and Boeing spent weeks attempting to pinpoint what went wrong with their vehicle and assessing whether Starliner was safe to carry the astronauts home.

The space agency ultimately decided returning the duo to Earth aboard Starliner was too risky a proposition. NASA announced last August that Williams and Wilmore would join the next International Space Station crew rotation along with two other astronauts on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission and remain aboard the orbiting laboratory for several additional months.

Williams and Wilmore ultimately returned home in March — more than nine months after they left Earth. Such a duration of stay in orbit is not uncommon, as astronauts routinely live on the space station for six months or longer when they serve on staff rotation missions.

‘Legacy of fortitude’

Both astronauts have maintained the position that they were fully prepared for their extended stay in space, saying they each understood the risks and uncertainty associated with test flying a spacecraft for the first time.

Williams and Wilmore also repeatedly sought to quash narratives that they were “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 CNN’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 acting head of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where astronauts train, in a statement 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 example set by Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the two 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 combat 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 trip 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 opportunity.

“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 conference. “And with that, I’d get on in a heartbeat.”

By Jackie Wattles, CNN