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3w ago

Butch Wilmore Retires After 25 Years and 464 Days in Space

His retirement marks the end of a program-spanning career that included Boeing’s first crewed Starliner flight

Boeing Crew Flight Test crew members Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams during Suited CFT FS Joint Ascent Sim training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center on October 31, 2022.
FILE - Astronaut Butch Wilmore is interviewed at Johnson Space Center on March 31, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, file)
NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore waves to the media after arriving at Kennedy Space Center aboard T-38 aircraft, for the Starliner Crew Flight Test, on Thursday, April 25, 2024. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel)
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Overview

  • Wilmore is among a small group of astronauts who have flown on the space shuttle, a Russian Soyuz, Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon
  • He performed five extravehicular activities, logging 32 hours of spacewalk time on the International Space Station
  • His Starliner flight in June 2024 suffered thruster problems that led NASA to extend his mission until his return aboard SpaceX’s Crew-9 in March 2025
  • A U.S. Navy test pilot and decorated captain, he was selected as an astronaut candidate in NASA’s 2000 class
  • Beyond piloting, Wilmore completed key station tasks such as antenna removal and laboratory sample collection during his missions