Rescued US astronaut Butch Wilmore said he’s “grateful” President Trump is taking an “active role” in space flight programs — saying it’s “refreshing” the current administration has shown a keen interest.
In his first interview since returning to Earth after being stuck in space for nine months, Wilmore told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” that the president — as well as SpaceX founder Elon Musk — had earned his trust.
“I have no reason not to believe anything they say because they’ve earned my trust,” Wilmore, 62, said.
“For that, I am grateful that our national leaders actually are coming in and taking part in our human space flight program, which we see is hugely important, [of] global significance, and they take an active role. And based on the past and what we see now… it’s refreshing, not just refreshing, it’s empowering.”
Asked what he would say to Trump and Musk, Wilmore responded, “I respect you. I trust you. You’ve given me no reason not to, either one of them.”
Suni Williams, who was stranded alongside Wilmore after their week-long test flight turned into a nine-month space odyssey, added that she, too, appreciated Trump and Musk were taking an interest.
“I’m just glad that they’re involved and they’re taking notice,” Williams, 59, said.
The veteran astronaut said their plight “allowed a lot of people, including the president and Elon, to look at what’s going on at the International Space Station, take it very seriously and understand that our involvement as a country, as a space faring nation, is really important throughout the world.”
“It sets an example and it shows, you know, our ability to be able to put people in space, operate in space, work in space, and then bring us back,” she added.
The president and Musk have long blamed former President Joe Biden for leaving the pair of astronauts stuck in space for so long.
The two astronauts didn’t criticize the Biden administration – or directly blame anyone for the mishap — in the lengthy interview.
“I wouldn’t characterize it as they failed us,” Williams said when asked if Boeing was among those responsible. “I characterize it as there was a huge team that was working together diligently to try to weigh all the risks of putting people in a spacecraft for the very first time with brand new systems.”
“Putting people on spacecrafts and launching them into space for extended periods of time, it’s hard.”
Wilmore rejected the characterization the pair were “stranded” up in space for the duration of their jaunt.
“In certain respects, we were stuck. In certain respects, maybe we were stranded. Okay, we didn’t get to come home the way we planned. So in one definition, we’re stuck, but in the big scheme of things, we weren’t stuck,” he stressed.
He said, in hindsight, there were questions that he should have even asked prior to take-off – noting that he’s “culpable” too.
“Is Boeing to blame, are they culpable? Sure. Is NASA to blame? Are they culpable? Sure. Everybody has a piece in this because it did not come up. There was some shortcomings in tests, shortcomings in preparation that we did not foresee,” he said.
“Could you point fingers? I don’t want to point fingers. I hope nobody wants to point fingers. We don’t want to look back and say ‘shame, shame, shame.’ We will look forward and say, ‘let’s rectify what we’ve learned and let’s make the future even more productive and better.’”
The pair spoke out after making a dramatic return to Earth from the International Space Station back on March 18 after spending a total of 286 days in space — a staggering 278 days longer than anticipated.
The NASA duo had set off on what was supposed to be an eight-day test flight on Boeing’s new Starliner spacecraft last June.
Their unplanned jaunt quickly captured the world’s attention and gave new meaning to the phrase “stuck at work” — turning the pair into household names.
Trump, who last week vowed to personally cover overtime pay for the veteran astronauts, has already said he wants to welcome the pair to the White House when they’ve fully recovered.