Featured Image Credit: Joe Raedle / Staff / Getty
It was a story that gripped the world, with Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore becoming the unexpected faces of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
After supposedly going on an eight-day mission to the International Space Station, the idea that two astronauts had been 'stranded' in space became quite the spectacle.
Williams and Wilmore finally returned to Earth after 286 days in the stars, and even as they entered a 'brutal' recovery regime to try and get back to their pre-flight health, they continued to be the center of a media storm.
Back when they were soaring some 250 miles above us, there were accusations that the Biden administration had 'abandoned' Williams and Wilmore. Their extended stay came after an issue with their Boeing Starliner meant NASA concluded it wasn't safe to send them back to Earth in it. Although SpaceX's Crew-9 was sent up with two spare seats to accommodate them, all four had to wait for the Crew-10 relief crew in March 2025.
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Wilmore had previously tried to take on some of the blame himself due to his role as mission commander, but across the board, he said blame could be aimed at Boeing, NASA, and all those involved.
When discussing who should be 'blamed' for the failure of the mission at a post-landing press conference, Wilmore admitted: "I'll start with me. There were issues, of course, with what happened with Starliner.
"There were some issues, of course, that happened that prevented us from returning on Starliner."And I'll start with me because there were questions that, as the commander of the spacecraft that I should have asked. And I did not, I didn't know I needed to."
He continued: "Blame, that's a term - I don't like that term - certainly there's responsibility throughout all the programmes, and certainly you can start with me."
Still, there's a responsibility for the issues "all throughout the chain," meaning Wilmore isn't taking all of the blame for himself.
Elsewhere, he confirmed that he and Williams were unaware of their newfound fame as they were busy conducting science experiments, carrying out repairs on the ISS, and taking part in spacewalks: "We were just really focused on what we were doing. The world doesn't revolve around us, but we revolve around it...
"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'."
Even if Wilmore isn't one to point fingers, we're sure there's plenty of finger-pointing going on at the Houston Space Center.
We know there are already commercial Dragon missions planned through until Crew-12's planned launch in 2026, while SpaceX is also handling the decommissioning of the International Space Station that's expected to happen in 2030 - even though Elon Musk wants it to be much sooner.
