Stuck astronaut Butch Wilmore retires from NASA less than 5 months after extended spaceflight
NASA announced Butch Wilmore's departure on Wednesday.
Wilmore and Suni Williams launched last summer as test pilots on Boeing's first astronaut flight. What should have been a weeklong trip to the International Space Station turned into a stay of more than nine months because of Boeing's malfunctioning Starliner. Starliner came back empty, and Wilmore and Williams returned to Earth in March with SpaceX.
Wilmore, 62, had already retired from the Navy. Williams, 59, also a retired Navy captain, is still with NASA. She joined Second Lady Usha Vance at Johnson Space Center in Houston earlier this week, taking part in a summer reading challenge for schoolchildren.
Selected as an astronaut in 2000, Wilmore logged 464 days in orbit over three missions. His final spaceflight made up nearly two-thirds of that total: 286 days.
'Throughout his career, Butch has exemplified the technical excellence of what is required of an astronaut," NASA's chief astronaut Joe Acaba said in a statement. 'As he steps into this new chapter, that same dedication will no doubt continue to show in whatever he decides to do next.'
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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