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SpaceX Rescue Crew Pranks Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams Ahead of Return
Butch Wilmore will never forget this intense takeoff.
Over a year after the retired NASA astronaut and his colleague Sunita Williams returned to Earth after being stranded in space for 286 days, he detailed his solemn mindset when their Boeing craft experienced mechanical issues during the mission.
“I cannot even begin to convey the feeling of dread that momentarily overwhelms my emotions. It’s simply unbelievable,” Wilmore wrote in an excerpt from his newly released memoir, Stuck in Space: An Astronauts Hope Through the Unexpected, per People. “Fear is not your ally, it’s your enemy in those scenarios.”
True to his words, the 63-year-old—who worked for NASA for 25 years—was worried about his and Sunita’s safety when they landed at the International Space Station in June 2024. However, what was supposed to be a week-long venture extended to a nine-month stay on the ISS due to their issues with the vehicle.
Since the duo spent so much time away from their loved ones, Butch noted he thought about his wife Deanne Wilmore and their daughters Daryn and Logan.
Butch also fixated on the damage that affected the shuttle’s performance and what it would mean for them to return to Earth. Ahead of their arrival on ISS, he admitted to thinking, “If we do dock, I don’t think we’re going to be able to come back on the spacecraft.”
Butch’s concern continued to manifest in other terrifying ways, including remembering the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster that killed all seven astronauts on board.
“I think of the partially charred helmet and boot I retrieved from that East Texas field. The pieces had fallen tens of thousands of feet,” the former test pilot wrote. “Certainly all of those thoughts race through your mind. But you compartmentalize and get rid of them because you got to focus on what’s going on at the moment.”
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Indeed, Butch and Sunita, 60, prioritized the mission—and their wellbeing—in order to get through their nine-month stay before returning to Earth last March. But despite a discomforting situation, he never expressed any frustration in dealing with this delay.
“It’s work,” Butch told the New York Times the same month. “It’s wonderful enjoyment. It’s fun. This is not an easy business that we’re taking part in. It is very difficult. Human spaceflight is tough and sometimes you run into situations that are unexpected and we found ourselves in one.”
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP) (Photo by MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images
In fact, he confessed these unpredictable moments were one of his favorite parts of being an astronaut when he announced his retirement five months later.
“From my earliest days, I have been captivated by the marvels of creation, looking upward with an insatiable curiosity,” the former test pilot wrote in the August note. “This curiosity propelled me into the skies, and eventually to space, where the magnificence of the cosmos mirrored the glory of its creator in ways words can scarcely convey.”
He added, “Even as I ventured beyond Earth’s limits, I remained attuned to the beauty and significance of the world below, recognizing the same intricate design evident among the stars is also woven into the fabric of life at home.”
Keep reading for a full look at Butch and Sunita’s nine-month venture in space...
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP) (Photo by MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images
June 2024
Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore launched into space on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft June 5, 2024, with plans to stay at the International Space Station for eight days. Shortly after their launch, the astronauts reported a “stable and isolated leak” in their propulsion-related plumbing, per the Associated Press.
While the leak remained stable throughout their travel to the ISS, four more leaks emerged and five thrusters—devices used for acceleration—failed. They were able to safely dock at the ISS, with the understanding that their mission would likely last longer than eight days.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
August 2024
Two months after their faulty launch, NASA came forward with the debacle of the two astronauts stuck in space. At the time, the space organization was still trying to determine whether the Starliner would be fit for a return to space, and Boeing maintained at the time it should have been, with the company telling E! News in a statement, “If NASA decides to change the mission, we will take the actions necessary to configure Starliner for an uncrewed return.”
Meanwhile, former NASA official Scott Hubbard quelled public concern over Wilmore and Williams’ predicament, telling the Associated Press the astronauts—who have each been to space before on prior missions—are only “kind of stuck,” emphasizing that they have “plenty of supplies and work to do.”
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
August 2024
After NASA confirmed that Williams and Wilmore would return to Earth on a SpaceX mission in February or March, rather than attempting to fix the Starliner, their families spoke out.
Wilmore’s wife Deanna Wilmore told WVLT in August of her family’s predicament, “You just sort of have to roll with it and expect the unexpected."
Meanwhile, Williams’ husband Michael shared that he didn’t think his wife would be unsettled by spending more time in space, telling The Wall Street Journal, “That's her happy place.”
Nasa/UPI/Shutterstock
November 2024
Just before celebrating six months in space, Williams and Wilmore shared insight into their Thanksgiving celebrations aboard the ISS.
“We have a bunch of food that we’ve packed away that is Thanksgiving-ish,” Wiliams told NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt from the ISS on Nov. 27. “Some smoked turkey, some cranberry, apple cobbler, green beans and mushrooms and mashed potatoes.”
Williams also reiterated that she and Wilmore were doing just fine amid their extended stay in space.
“People are worried about us, really, don’t worry about us,” she added. “We’re feeling good, working out, eating right. We have a lot of fun up here, too.”
Manoj Verma/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
December 2024
After the astronauts celebrated six months in space, NASA confirmed they would be staying even longer than previously thought. Although the organization had originally planned for the duo to return in February, delays in the SpaceX mission that would retrieve them led their stay to be extended to March or April, NASA said at the time.
(Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
February 2025
In February, President Donald Trump claimed in a Truth Social post that Williams and Wilmore had been “virtually abandoned” in space amid their eight-day-turned-eight-month journey. However, following the headline-making comment, the astronauts pushed back on the president’s claim.
“We don't feel abandoned,” Wilmore insisted to CNN’s Anderson Cooper in a Feb. 13 interview. "We don't feel stuck. We don't feel stranded. We come prepared. We come committed.”
Williams interjected during the interview that the pair were “doing pretty darn good, actually.”
“We've got food, we've got clothes, we have great crew members up here,” she continued. “Of course, it was a little bit longer stay than we had expected, but both of us have trained to live and work on the International Space Station and I think we've made the most of it.”
During the interview, Wilmore and Williams also confirmed they’d be returning to Earth when SpaceX launches its Dragon capsule March 12.
“They'll come here, rendezvous and dock," Wilmore explained. “We'll do a turnover for about a week and we will return on or about the 19th of March.”
MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images
March 2025
Just days before her father was set to return, Wilmore’s daughter Daryn Wilmore spoke out on her father’s time in space—and how she felt about the delays in his return to Earth.
“It’s a bit mentally exhausting,” she told the Daily Mail in a March 6 interview. “There's been issues. There's been negligence. And that's the reason why this has just kept getting delayed. There's just been issue after issue after issue.”
Daryn expressed that her father was “bummed,” but otherwise doing well on the ISS, adding, “My dad is very resilient.”
Keegan Barber/NASA via AP
March 2025
After their extended nine-month stay in space, Wilmore and Williams safely returned to Earth on March 18. After splashing down off the coast of Florida, the NASA austronauts, alongside fellow NASA crew member Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, were wheeled off the space capsule on stretchers—standard protocol for returning space travelers as they typically can’t walk right away upon their return.
“A lot of them don't want to be brought out on a stretcher,” former NASA senior scientist John DeWitt told Live Science, “but they're told they have to be.”
As for how the astronauts will spend their first few days back on Earth? Wilmore's daughter Daryn gave some insight.
“He's going to spend the next few days going in [for] tests,” she said in a March 18 TikTok video. “Lots of medical stuff because they're still technically part of the experiment of human space flight. And just get re-acclimated to gravity and the routine back here on Earth, because it's been very different than these past 9 months.”
Keegan Barber/NASA via Getty Images
March 2025
After the astronauts landed back on Earth following eight extra months in space, NASA addressed whether they'd get paid any overtime.
"When NASA astronauts are aboard the International Space Station, they receive regular, 40-hour work-week salaries,” NASA told People in a statement. “They do not receive overtime or holiday/weekend pay.”
As for what a regular 40-hour work-week salary looks like for an astronaut? It clocks in at anywhere between $84,365 to $152,258, according to the federal government's GS-11 to GS-14 pay scale.
Keegan Barber/NASA via Getty Images
March 2025
Once, at long last, her father Butch returned home, daughter Daryn shared her reaction to finally being reunited with her dad.
"I'm making him his favorite dessert, which is pecan pie,” the college student said in a TikTok. “I actually have a list that's all his favorite things and things that we used to do together to hopefully do them these next few days that he's here before I go back to school, or in the coming months that he's back.”
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