NASA Astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams have pronounced for the first time since they returned from their more than nine-month space emission.
The couple sat down for a joint interview with FOX News that was broadcast on Monday, in which they said that they did not see their mission as a failure, but that NASA, Boeing and even the astronauts themselves had a role to play in his unexpected outcome.
'These are many questions that as commander of [the Crew Flight Test]I didn't ask. So I am culpable, “said Wilmore.
“I will admit that to the nation. There are things that I didn't ask I should have asked. I didn't know then I had to ask them. But in retrospect, the signals were some signals.
“Is Boeing the culprit? Are they culpable? Certainly. Is NASA the fault, are they culpable? Certainly. Everyone has a piece in this because it did not come loose. There were some short arrival in tests and short arrival in preparations that we had not foreseen. '
Wilmore has also made a shocking admission about claims that the Biden administration has “abandoned him and his crew member in the room”.
“I have no reason to believe nothing they say because they have earned my confidence,” said Wilmore during a Monday Fox News interview.
“And I am grateful for that,” he said, adding that it is “refreshing,” “empowerment” and “strengthen national leaders play an active role in the human space program of NASA, which he described as a globally significant.
NASA Astronauten Sunita Williams (L) and Barry Wilmore (R) are finally back on earth after being detained at the international space station for more than nine months
Wilmore and Williams would only spend eight days at the International Space Station (ISS) when they launched Boeing's Starliner on 5 June.
But technical problems with their spacecraft have been stuck there for more than nine months.
By the time they returned to Earth on March 18, they had spent 288 days in space.
But both astronauts have repeatedly said that they did not feel stranded, held up or abandoned on the ISS, and they doubled these statements during the FOX News interview.
“One of those adjectives, they are very broad in their definition,” said Wilmore.
'So okay, we were stuck in certain respects, in certain respects we might have been stranded, but based on how they held this – that we had left and forgot and forgot – we were nowhere near that all.
'We did not come home as we were planning. So we are stuck in one definition. But we were not stuck in the big schedule of things. We were planned, trained. '
When asked if they thought Boeing had failed them, Williams said, “I wouldn't really like that.”
Both astronauts said that Starliner uses new, highly advanced technology, and launching such a complex system comes into space with challenges.
“The spacecraft is quite complicated in the way they have integrated all different types of systems together,” said Williams.
'This is the most robust spacecraft that we have in the inventory. There is nothing that can do everything that Starliner can do, “Wilmore added.
He said he does not want to point 'fingers' to those who have played a role in their considerably delayed return.
But others have indicated fingers in recent months, including President Donald Trump and his senior adviser, CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk.
Trump and Musk, who is also a senior adviser to the White House, claimed in February that the Biden government has left the astronauts on the ISS for 'political reasons'.
And although Wilmore said that he does not want to concentrate on who is to blame, he also said that he trusts what the president and his adviser say.
'I have no reason to believe nothing they say because they have earned my confidence. And I am grateful for that, “he said, adding that it is 'refreshing', 'empowerment' and 'reinforcement' for national leaders to be actively involved in the human space program of NASA.
Last week, NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens credited the Trump administration with the safe return of the astronauts and Fox News said that it would not have happened without President Trump's intervention. “
This was not the first time that NASA representatives had expressed their gratitude to President Trump.
After Williams and Wilmore were split off the coast of Florida in the crew-9 Dragon Capsule of SpaceX, Acting NASA manager Janet Petro issued a statement stating that the Trump government influenced the timing of their return.
“According to President Trump's direction, NASA and SpaceX worked diligently to draw the schedule a month earlier,” said Petro.
“This international crew and our teams on the ground embraced the challenge of the Trump administration of an updated and somewhat unique, mission plan, to bring our crew home,” she added.
The extensive space mission came for the first time in the political spotlights in January, when Trump said he told Musk to 'go to get' the astronauts who were 'virtually abandoned' by the Biden government.
Trump and Musk participated in a joint Fox News interview in February, in which the president said he gave the guideline to accelerate the return of the Starliner crew.
“They didn't have the light with Biden. He would leave them in the room. I think he would leave them in space. … he didn't want the publicity. Can you believe it? “He said.
NASA did not immediately comment on Trump or Musk's claims with regard to the Biden administration, but the agency rather denied that politics played some role in their decision-making regarding the return of Starliner crew.
During a press conference of 4 March, officials from the agency said that safety, budget problems and the need to ensure that the ISS was constantly manned, encouraged the decision to have Williams and Wilmore return with the crew-9 mission of SpaceX.
The Starliner astronauts are now on earth almost two weeks ago.
During the Monday Fox News interview, Williams and Wilmore shared their reactions to learn that they would be longer in space than they had expected.
“My first thought was that we just have to turn,” said Williams. 'If this was fate if our spacecraft would go home based on decisions [by NASA] And we would be there until February, I had something like: “Okay, let's make the best of it.”
“We were ready to just jump in and take on the tasks that were given to us,” she added.
“It's not about me,” said Wilmore. 'It's not about my feelings, it's about what this human space program is about. They are our national goals. '
