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Stranded NASA Astronaut Barry Butch" Wilmore's Daughter Breaks Silence
Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore will need to be content with phoning home just a little longer.
A joint NASA and SpaceX launch scheduled for March 12 to help bring the two astronauts—who have been stranded on the International Space Station since June—back to Earth has been delayed by at least two days, according to a statement from NASA.
The launch was delayed due to a “hydraulic system issue with a ground support clamp arm,” according to the statement, which noted launch teams are currently working to address the issue.
The mission is now targeting a 7:03 p.m. launch on March 14 at the earliest, the statement added, after mission managers decided to wave a March 13 launch attempt “due to high winds and precipitation forecasted in the flight path of Dragon.”
The SpaceX rocket would carry a replacement crew for the International Space Station, upon which Suni and Butch have been stuck for nine months. If the March 14 launch goes as planned, the earliest the two would return back to Earth is March 19, pending weather conditions.
The decision to postpone the mission occurred within one hour of the scheduled launch time, per CBS News, as SpaceX engineers were troubleshooting the apparent issue with the ground support clamp. According to the outlet, the system appeared to be working normally, however it was feared one of the arms wouldn’t retract fully prior to launch.
The attempt to swap crews of the International Space Station comes after Butch’s daughter Daryn Wilmore spoke out amid her father’s continued absence.
MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images
"There's a lot of things that I'm not at liberty to say, and that I don't know fully about," she shared in a February TikTok. "But there's been issues. There's been negligence. And that's the reason why this has just kept getting delayed. There's just been issue after issue after issue."
She continued, “We’ve had so many changes and it’s a bit mentally exhausting.”
For his part, Butch recently spoke out after President Donald Trump said he and Suni has been “abandoned” in space.
"That's been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck—and I get it," Butch told CNN in February, "but that is, again, not what our human spaceflight program is about.”
The 62-year-old continued, “We don’t feel abandoned, we don’t feel stuck, we don’t feel stranded.”
Suni added, "We've got food, we've got clothes, we have great crew members up here. Of course, it was a little bit longer stay than we had expected, but both of us have trained to live and work on the International Space Station and I think we've made the most of it."
For more on the astronauts’ time in orbit, keep reading.
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP) (Photo by MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images
June 2024
Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore launched into space on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft June 5, 2024, with plans to stay at the International Space Station for eight days. Shortly after their launch, the astronauts reported a “stable and isolated leak” in their propulsion-related plumbing, per the Associated Press.
While the leak remained stable throughout their travel to the ISS, four more leaks emerged and five thrusters—devices used for acceleration—failed. They were able to safely dock at the ISS, with the understanding that their mission would likely last longer than eight days.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
August 2024
Two months after their faulty launch, NASA came forward with the debacle of the two astronauts stuck in space. At the time, the space organization was still trying to determine whether the Starliner would be fit for a return to space, and Boeing maintained at
the time it should have been, with the company telling E! News in a statement, “If NASA decides to change the mission, we will take the actions necessary to configure Starliner for an uncrewed return.”
Meanwhile, former NASA official Scott Hubbard quelled public concern over Wilmore and Williams’ predicament, telling the Associated Press the astronauts—who have each been to space before on prior missions—are only “kind of stuck,” emphasizing that they have “plenty of supplies and work to do.”
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
August 2024
After NASA confirmed that Williams and Wilmore would return to Earth on a SpaceX mission in February or March, rather than attempting to fix the Starliner, their families spoke out.
Wilmore’s wife Deanna Wilmore told WVLT in August of her family’s predicament, “You just sort of have to roll with it and expect the unexpected."
Meanwhile, Williams’ husband Michael shared that he didn’t think his wife would be unsettled by spending more time in space, telling The Wall Street Journal, “That's her happy place.”
Nasa/UPI/Shutterstock
November 2024
Just before celebrating six months in space, Williams and Wilmore shared insight into their Thanksgiving celebrations aboard the ISS.
“We have a bunch of food that we’ve packed away that is Thanksgiving-ish,” Wiliams told NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt from the ISS on Nov. 27. “Some smoked turkey, some cranberry, apple cobbler, green beans and mushrooms and mashed potatoes.”
Williams also reiterated that she and Wilmore were doing just fine amid their extended stay in space.
“People are worried about us, really, don’t worry about us,” she added. “We’re feeling good, working out, eating right. We have a lot of fun up here, too.”
Manoj Verma/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
December 2024
After the astronauts celebrated six months in space, NASA confirmed they would be staying even longer than previously thought. Although the organization had originally planned for the duo to return in February, delays in the SpaceX mission that would retrieve them led their stay to be extended to March or April, NASA said at the time.
(Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
February 2025
In February, President Donald Trump claimed in a Truth Social post that Williams and Wilmore had been “virtually abandoned” in space amid their eight-day-turned-eight-month journey. However, following the headline-making comment, the astronauts pushed back on the president’s claim.
“We don't feel abandoned,” Wilmore insisted to CNN’s Anderson Cooper in a Feb. 13 interview. "We don't feel stuck. We don't feel stranded. We come prepared. We come committed.”
Williams interjected during the interview that the pair were “doing pretty darn good, actually.”
“We've got food, we've got clothes, we have great crew members up here,” she continued. “Of course, it was a little bit longer stay than we had expected, but both of us have trained to live and work on the International Space Station and I think we've made the most of it.”
During the interview, Wilmore and Williams also confirmed they’d be returning to Earth when SpaceX launches its Dragon capsule March 12.
“They'll come here, rendezvous and dock," Wilmore explained. “We'll do a turnover for about a week and we will return on or about the 19th of March.”
MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images
March 2025
Just days before her father was set to return, Wilmore’s daughter Daryn Wilmore spoke out on her father’s time in space—and how she felt about the delays in his return to Earth.
“It’s a bit mentally exhausting,” she told the Daily Mail in a March 6 interview. “There's been issues. There's been negligence. And that's the reason why this has just kept getting delayed. There's just been issue after issue after issue.”
Daryn expressed that her father was “bummed,” but otherwise doing well on the ISS, adding, “My dad is very resilient.”
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