Astronaut Butch Wilmore retires from NASA less than 5 months after 286-day spaceflight

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One among NASA’s two beforehand caught astronauts has retired from the area company, lower than 5 months after his unexpectedly lengthy spaceflight got here to an finish.

NASA introduced Butch Wilmore’s departure on Wednesday.

Wilmore and Suni Williams launched final summer time as check pilots on Boeing’s first astronaut flight.

What ought to have been a weeklong journey to the Worldwide Area Station became a keep of greater than 9 months due to Boeing’s malfunctioning Starliner.

Astronaut Butch Wilmore waved as he returned to Earth in NASA’s SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft on March 18, 2025. NASA

Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams smiled and waved earlier than they launched into area on June 5, 2024 from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Getty Photographs

Starliner got here again empty, and Wilmore and Williams returned to Earth in March with SpaceX.

Wilmore, 62, had already retired from the Navy. Williams, 59, additionally a retired Navy captain, remains to be with NASA.

She joined Second Woman Usha Vance at Johnson Area Middle in Houston earlier this week, collaborating in a summer time studying problem for schoolchildren.

Wilmore spent the vacations on the ISS whereas he was stranded in area. X / NASA Astronauts

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission returned to Earth on March 18, 2025. NASA

Wilmore is a veteran pilot and a graduate of the US Naval Check Pilot Faculty. NASA

Chosen as an astronaut in 2000, Wilmore logged 464 days in orbit over three missions. His last spaceflight made up practically two-thirds of that whole: 286 days.

“All through his profession, Butch has exemplified the technical excellence of what's required of an astronaut,” NASA’s chief astronaut Joe Acaba stated in a press release. “As he steps into this new chapter, that very same dedication will little question proceed to point out in no matter he decides to do subsequent.”