Now home, and with a new memoir, Barry “Butch” Wilmore recalls his routine at the International Space Station as well as the family moments he missed the most
Credit: MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Ex-NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore spent 286 days in space after his space capsule experienced mechanical failures in June 2024
- Now home, and with a new memoir, the veteran recalls his routine at the International Space Station as well as the family moments he missed the most
- “I think that I felt for them more than I felt for myself, truly,” Wilmore told PEOPLE of the impact of the extended trip on his loved ones
Unexpectedly spending over nine months in space meant that former NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore missed a lot back home — and there were other challenges that came with the "privilege" of space travel as well, like having to wear a diaper.
“There's only a handful of people, and honestly, in the history of any nation, the globe, [who have] had the privilege of doing this,” Wilmore, 63, told PEOPLE ahead of the release of his memoir, Stuck in Space, on Tuesday, March 17.
“The whole effort of human space flight is for the benefit of mankind,” he continued. “And if that means I've got to be here a little longer than planned, so be it.”
By a bit longer, Wilmore meant 286 days in space.
On June 5, 2024, Wilmore and fellow NASA astronaut Suni Williams were on the Boeing Starliner for a test flight that was supposed to last for eight days, but as they approached the International Space Station, multiple thrusters failed.
Wilmore was momentarily filled with “dread,” but pushed past his emotions to do what was necessary to help dock the spacecraft, knowing that if they failed, they wouldn't survive.
Once they safely arrived at the ISS, their stay was extended multiple times following the identification of “propulsion system anomalies” while the capsule was in orbit, according to a recent report from NASA. The nearly fatal incident has been labeled as a “Type A” mishap, the same classification that the deadly Columbia and Challenger space shuttle disasters received, according to CNN.
Even before the crew docked, Wilmore realized he was going to be in space for longer than anticipated.
By July, he told his wife, Deanna, and their two daughters, Daryn and Logan, that he most likely wouldn’t return home until the following year, something that was incredibly "hard to share with them."
The astronaut quickly fell into a routine on the ISS. In addition to all of the “important” space tasks he needed to do, there was something of special personal significance he looked forward to.
“Almost every day, I anxiously wait for two moments when we fly over South Texas, where my wife, Deanna, and our daughters, Daryn and Logan, are,” Wilmore recalled in his memoir. “I often follow the threads of light spread across the darkened globe to find our neighborhood and the university that Daryn attends. Although I see my family almost daily over video calls, being able to spot their location from above is a blessing I cherish.”
Credit: Barry Wilmore
He missed Daryn’s theater performances while she attended East Texas Baptist University for her sophomore year, as well as Logan’s senior year of high school and her last year of volleyball.
The astronaut dad also wrote about tasks that he normally handled — replacing their roof after a tree fell on their house during a hurricane, or taking their vehicles in for repairs — that Deanne managed instead.
He was proud of his family’s accomplishments, even as they continued to miss each other.
“I think that I felt for them more than I felt for myself, truly,” Wilmore told PEOPLE of missing out on special moments with his daughters. “I mean, I would love to have been there for me, but mostly we do things for our kids because of them and how it makes them feel, not how it makes us feel.”
Despite the separation from his family, Butch says it was not a struggle to stay in space. Though in his memoir, he wrote that he doesn’t miss the “infamous diaper” or “pooping into the equivalent of a shop-vac.”
Credit: NASA
For Wilmore, exercising in the morning before everyone else woke up was his favorite time of the day.
“That stress on your body, when your body has no stress because of the zero gravity, is invigorating,” he told PEOPLE, adding that it felt like “a shot of adrenaline.”
When Williams and Butch returned to Earth in March 2025, his body took time to adjust as he dealt with symptoms like anemia and a loss of stamina as his muscles adjusted to gravity.
But he said he came back home the strongest he’s ever been.
“It wasn't something I would've chosen,” said Wilmore, who retired from NASA in August 2025, of that last trip to space. “I had no desire to do another long-duration space flight. The draw for me was the test, the mission, testing Starliner.”
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Though the mission didn’t go as planned, he still felt “grateful.”
“It gave me a longer time to serve my nation,” said Wilmore. “I think my daughters and my wife, all of us, grew from it, grew spiritually, grew an appreciation and understanding that our Lord is in control."
Stuck in Space: An Astronaut's Hope Through the Unexpected by Capt. Barry "Butch" Wilmore is out now.
Read the full article here
