The Rescued Astronauts Explain How Their Boeing Spacecraft Malfunctioned, and it Was Way More Harrowing Than We Were Led to Believe

This was my favorite moment of 2025 so far. One of those great American achievements that demonstrated once again there is nothing we're not capable of when we put our minds to it. A triumph of the human will. Combining heroism, science, adventure, bravery, engineering, spectacular visuals, and just in case all that wasn't enough, fricking dolphins:

It just could not have gone better. Until now. Until we find out from the astronauts themselves just how dicey things went for them when they were stranded back in June. This is the original post I did when it was first announced they were stuck at the ISS:

And the news report I cited:

Source - It seemingly took a small miracle for Boeing's Starliner to limp to the International Space Station in one piece — but the company is far from being out of the woods. 

Yes, the plagued spacecraft managed to finally make it to the orbital outpost, with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on board, earlier this month.

But the journey didn't go by without a hitch — officials quickly discovered five different helium leaks affecting Starliner's thruster system.

At that time, the assumption was Wilmore and Williams would be up there another three weeks. And made it sound like they made it to the ISS no problem, but the readings showed a few glitches that had to be looked at. Like when your wife pulls into the driveway saying her "Check Engine" light is on so she's going to make an appointment with your car guy. 

What we're finding out now is that the truth was much more horrific. We came dangerously close to losing Butch and Suni into the void of space than previously reported:

Source - 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. …

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?' …

'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. 

Holy schniekies. Consider that the next time you see someone lapse into panic as they try to back into a parking spot in the garage. 

More to the point, consider this the next time any of these men and woman volunteer to leave a perfectly good planet with a sweet, comfortable nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere mixed with a just the right amount of trace gases and water vapor to go into the harsh, brutal, void of space. The sorts of people who'll strap themselves into a seat atop a tower of highly explosive liquids and hope for the best. Who'll trust the thousands of strangers who designed and built the millions of systems needed to keep them from blowing up on the launch pad or being air-fried upon entry. 

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Butch and Suni-dance (that should've caught on) were white-knucking it in a rapidly failing space capsule while trying to dock with a space station traveling 17,150 mph 250 miles above the surface. With near catastrophic system failure. The helm barely responding. Trying to decide whether to abort the mission and hopefully make it back to Earth in one piece, or whether the only way back was to keep moving forward. Knowing that one more mechanical problem or one wrong decision could leave them as human satellites for all eternity. 

This should serve as a reminder of how elite these people are. They are truly the best of the best. A self-selected group of rare people willing to make the ultimate sacrifice at insane odds, in order to take humanities first baby steps into the greater universe. 

By way of example: In 1959, when NASA put out a call for the first generation of astronauts to join the Mercury program, they created a specific standard of qualifications. They had to be test pilots, younger than 40, shorter than 5-foot-11, in excellent physical condition, and with at least 1,500 hours of flight time. A total of 110 Americans met those qualifications. While 69 of them were brought in for briefings on the program and the risks involved. Of those, 53 volunteered. That's 77%. 

So credit to all who serve. Especially to Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who had the temperament and the tenacity to stay calm when things were at their hairiest, and completed the mission. Who are so brave and determined that they were willing to put their trust in Boeing, which struggles to keep a door on a passenger liner. As long as we leave that company out of this program going forward, and keep finding astronauts like Butch and Suni, conquering the universe should be a breeze. 

And to Butch, you sir, are a steely-eyed missile man: