The two veteran NASA astronauts, who have a combined 500 days of spaceflight experience, were the first crew sent to space on Boeing’s Starliner space capsule on a test flight from Florida on June 5. They were scheduled to return in about eight days. Now Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, both former military test pilots, won’t return to Earth until early next year on a SpaceX vehicle. NASA has deemed problems with Starliner’s propulsion system too risky to fly the first crew home as planned.
The Starliner capsule sprung a leak and some of its thrusters malfunctioned, so its mission on the International Space Station has been extended by several months.
Barry “Butch” Wilmore
Barry “Butch” Wilmore, 61, a retired U.S. Navy captain, completed four operational deployments flying fighter jets from the decks of aircraft carriers, including 21 combat missions during the first U.S. Gulf War in the 1990s. He also served as a Navy test pilot and flight instructor before joining NASA’s astronaut corps in 2000.
He first went to the space station in 2009 as a NASA space shuttle pilot, and returned to the space lab in 2014 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with two astronauts — for a long-duration mission that included several months as station commander.
Prior to his Starliner mission, Wilmore had spent 178 days in space and completed four spacewalks.
Wilmore, a Tennessee native, played college football while attending Tennessee Tech University. He has advanced degrees in electrical engineering and aviation systems. He is married and has two daughters.
Sunita “Sunny” Williams
Sunita “Suni” Williams, 58, is a former Navy helicopter pilot with experience flying more than 30 different rotary aircraft, deployed as part of a helicopter combat support squadron during the first Gulf War. She later flew in support of Navy disaster relief operations in Florida following Hurricane Andrew.
She returned to the Naval Test Pilot School as a rotary aircraft instructor before being selected for the NASA astronaut program in 1998.
Like Wilmore, Williams also traveled to the space station aboard the first space shuttle and returned as a Soyuz passenger with two astronauts. Both of her ISS visits, in 2006-2007 and 2012, were long-duration science missions.
After two stays on the outpost, Williams set the world record for the most time spent by a woman in orbit outside a spacecraft, logging a total of 50 hours and 40 minutes during seven spacewalks. Her record has since been broken by fellow astronaut Peggy Whitson.
During her second ISS mission in 2012, Williams became the second woman to command the station.
An avid athlete, Williams became the first person to complete a marathon in space in 2007, competing in a virtual Boston Marathon from orbit on the space station’s treadmill, finishing the distance in four hours and 24 minutes.
Taking this concept to the next level, Williams completed the first triathlon in space in 2012, again using a treadmill and stationary bicycle, and combining weight lifting and resistance exercises on a fitness machine, similar to swimming in microgravity.
Prior to her Starliner mission to the ISS, Williams had spent a total of 322 days in space. She also made history by becoming the first woman on the first crewed flight of the new orbital spacecraft.
Born in Massachusetts, Williams currently lives in Houston with her husband, a federal police officer who flew helicopters earlier in his career.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
