OAN Staff Abril Elfi
2:22 PM – Monday, March 31, 2025
Rescued NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams gave their first interview since returning to earth after being stranded in space for nine months, thanking President Donald Trump for his involvement.
On Monday, Fox News aired Willmore and Williams’ first interview since their return from space, in which Willmore said he’s “grateful” that Trump is taking an “active role” in space flight programs.
Wilmore also stated that it’s “refreshing” that the current administration has shown a keen interest and that Trump, as well as 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 are coming in and taking part in our human space flight program, which we see as hugely important, [of] global significance, and they are taking an active role. And based on the past and what we’re seeing now… it’s refreshing, not just refreshing, it’s empowering,” he continued.
When he was 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.”
Williams 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.
She added that their situation “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 them back,” she said.
However, when asked if Boeing was among those at fault for the incident, they did not deem anyone responsible.
“I wouldn’t characterize it as they failed us,” Williams said. “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 spacecraft and launching them into space for extended periods of time, it’s hard.”
Wilmore said that he is “culpable” too and that everyone has a bit of blame in what happened.
“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.’”
Wilmore and Williams, 59, splashed down off the Gulf Coast of Florida near Tallahassee — just before 6 p.m. ET on March 18th. They returned to Earth after being in space for 286 days.
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