Morning Wire From Launch to Crisis: The Mission That Left Astronauts Stuck in Orbit
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Mar 14, 2026 
Butch Wilmore, retired U.S. Navy Captain and NASA astronaut who commanded long-duration missions and wrote the memoir Stuck in Space, recounts a Starliner mission that spun into crisis. He talks through thruster failures, the tense manual-and-automated docking that became the only safe option, life confined to spacecraft during an extended stay, and why he wrote his memoir with a message of hope.
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Thruster Failures Forced An Emergency Docking
- Butch Wilmore and crew lost multiple thrusters after launch, forcing them to dock because they feared they couldn't safely deorbit.
- He manually cycled individual thrusters and canceled fault-detection logic to bring some back, enabling a risky docking to the ISS.
Fault Logic Protects Systems But Lowers Fault Tolerance
- Fault detection software can isolate underperforming thrusters by removing them from control, which protects systems but can reduce overall fault tolerance.
- Recovering a thruster required firing it in isolation and cancelling the software fault removal to restore it.
Immediate Contingency Planning After Docking
- After regaining some thrusters, Wilmore docked but knew the Starliner might not be usable for return, so contingency planning began immediately.
- He consulted ISS commander Matthew Dominick and called senior flight director Vincent LaCorte to evaluate evacuation and return options.
