(31 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Houston – 31 March 2025
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Butch Wilmore, NASA astronaut:
REPORTER: "Given the opportunity, would you guys go up on Starliner again?"
WILMORE: "Yes, because we’re going to rectify all the issues that we that we encountered. We’re going to fix them, we’re going to make it work. Boeing’s completely committed. NASA is completely committed. And with that, I’d get on in a heartbeat."
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Suni Williams, NASA astronaut:
"Yeah, I would agree. The spacecraft is really capable. There were a couple things that need to be fixed, like Butch mentioned. And, folks are actively working on that. But it is a great spacecraft and it has a lot of capability that other spacecraft don’t have. And to see that thing successful and to be part of that program is an honor."
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Butch Wilmore, NASA astronaut:
++PARTIALLY COVERED++
"There were some issues, of course, that happened with Starliner. There were some issues, of course, that happened that prevented us from returning on Starliner. And I’ll start with me. 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, and maybe you could call that hindsight, but I’ll start and point the finger and I’ll blame me. I could have asked some questions and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide. So blame – that’s a term, I don’t like that term, but certainly there’s responsibility throughout all the programs. And certainly you can you can start with me. Responsibility with Boeing? Yes. Responsibility with NASA? Yes. All the way up and down the chain. We all are responsible. We all own this."
4. Astronauts posing for photo
STORYLINE:
NASA’s celebrity astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams said Monday that they hold themselves partly responsible for what went wrong on their space sprint-turned-marathon and would fly on Boeing’s Starliner again.
SpaceX recently ferried the duo home after more than nine months at the International Space Station, filling in for Boeing that returned to Earth without them last year.
In their first news conference since coming home, the pair said they were taken aback by all the interest and insisted they were only doing their job and putting the mission ahead of themselves and even their families.
Wilmore didn’t shy from accepting some of the blame for Boeing’s bungled test flight.
“I’ll start and point the finger and I’ll blame me. I could have asked some questions and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide,” he told reporters. “All the way up and down the chain. We all are responsible. We all own this.”
Both astronauts said they would strap into Starliner again. “Because 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, adding he’d go back up “in a heartbeat.”
Williams noted that Starliner has “a lot of capability” and she wants to see it succeed. The two will meet with Boeing leadership on Wednesday to provide a rundown on the flight and its problems.
The longtime astronauts and retired Navy captains ended up spending 286 days in space — 278 days more than planned when they blasted off on Boeing’s first astronaut flight on June 5. The test pilots had to intervene in order for the Starliner capsule to reach the space station, as thrusters failed and helium leaked.
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