The astronauts who were left stranded on board the International Space Station revealed they were almost lost in space on the day their Boeing Starliner ship malfunctioned.
Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams were left on the ISS for 286 days after their craft malfunctioned on what was originally intended to be an eight-day mission last June.
In their first media rounds since landing back on earth last month, the astronauts revealed that their capsule was plagued with issues from the very beginning, including a near-catastrophe when they first approached the ISS.
They recalled that after Wilmore took manual control of the ship, they lost four thrusters, and with that the ability to steer the vehicle safely.
Flight regulations dictate that even though they were a stone’s throw away from the ISS, they should return to earth, but Wilmore said he realized he may have completely lost control of the ship.
‘I don’t know that we can come back to Earth at that point,’ he told Arstechnica. ‘I don’t know if we can. And matter of fact, I’m thinking we probably can’t.’
Faced with the ominous situation, Wilmore said he had to decide if it was riskier to attempt to fly back to earth or dock in the ISS, and Williams said the two of them were having ‘a lot of unsaid communication’ inside the capsule.
‘We don’t know exactly what is happening, why the thrusters are falling off, and what the solution would be,’ Williams added.
Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams revealed they were almost lost in space on the day their Boeing Starliner ship malfunctioned and left them stranded on the ISS
Williams (pictured) and Wilmore returned last month after 286 days on the ISS, but they revealed the chilling moment that left them doubting if they would ever return to earth
Wilmore said that after the thrusters failed, he was thinking to himself: ‘I don’t know that we can come back to Earth.
‘So there we are, loss of 6DOF control, four aft thrusters down, and I’m visualizing orbital mechanics. The space station is nose down.
‘So we’re not exactly level with the station, but below it. If you’re below the station, you’re moving faster. That’s orbital mechanics. It’s going to make you move away from the station.
‘I’m doing all of this in my mind. I don’t know what control I have. What if I lose another thruster? What if we lose comm? What am I going to do?’
He explained that Starliner uses a vision system that uses the space station as a frame of reference, and the malfunction meant that ‘we had started to fall off and lose that.’
‘We didn’t lose the station ever, but we did start to deviate a little bit,’ Wilmore continued.
‘I think both of us were getting a bit nervous then because the system would’ve automatically aborted us.’
The sticky situation was eventually solved as NASA was able to reboot the thrusters, only after Wilmore had to relinquish control of the capsule, leaving himself and Williams floating in space.
‘That was not easy to do,’ Wilmore added.
NASA astronauts finally splash down after nine months in space
The astronauts revealed that they almost missed docking with the International Space Station (pictured) when they made their initial flight
Teams seen rescuing Williams and Wilmore from the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that saved them after their Boeing Starliner malfunctioned in orbit
Wilmore and Williams (pictured) were only supposed to spend eight days on the International Space Station when they launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner on June 5, but ended up staying in orbit for 286 days
Moment showing possible health issue for astronaut Suni Williams
Eventually, the thrusters came back online, and Williams said the relief she felt when they finally docked left her ‘super happy.’
‘I did this little happy dance. One, of course, just because I love being in space and am happy to be on the space station and with great friends up there,’ she recalled.
‘Two, just really happy that Starliner docked to the space station. My feeling at that point in time was like, ‘Oh, phew, let’s just take a breather and try to understand what happened.’
Although the Starliner was able to dock, Wilmore added that he knew as soon as they were settled that he and Williams would likely need another route home.
‘I was thinking, we might not come home in the spacecraft. We might not,’ he said.
‘And one of the first phone calls I made was to Vincent LaCourt, the ISS flight director, who was one of the ones that made the call about waiving the flight rule. I said, ‘OK, what about this spacecraft, is it our safe haven?”
