CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) 鈥� NASA鈥檚 celebrity astronauts said Monday that they hold themselves partly responsible for what went wrong on their and would fly on again.
SpaceX recently ferried the duo home after more than nine months at the , filling in for Boeing that returned to Earth without them last year.
In their first news conference since coming home, the pair said they were taken aback by all the interest and insisted they were only doing their job and putting the mission ahead of themselves and even their families.
Wilmore didn't shy from accepting some of the blame for Boeing's bungled test flight.
鈥淚鈥檒l start and point the finger and I鈥檒l blame me. I could have asked some questions and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide,鈥� he told reporters. 鈥淎ll the way up and down the chain. We all are responsible. We all own this.鈥�
Both astronauts said they would strap into Starliner again. 鈥淏ecause we're going to rectify all the issues that we encountered. We're going to fix them. We're going to make it work,鈥� Wilmore said, adding he'd go back up 鈥渋n a heartbeat.鈥�
Williams noted that Starliner has 鈥渁 lot of capability鈥� and she wants to see it succeed. 鈥淲e're all in,鈥� she said.
The two will meet with Boeing leadership on Wednesday to provide a rundown on the flight and its problems.
鈥淚t's not for pointing fingers,鈥� Wilmore said. 鈥淚t's just to make the path clearer going forward.鈥�
The longtime astronauts and retired Navy captains ended up spending 286 days in space 鈥� 278 days more than planned when they blasted off on Boeing鈥檚 first astronaut flight on June 5. The test pilots had to intervene in order for the Starliner capsule to reach the space station, as thrusters failed and helium leaked.
Their space station stay kept getting extended as engineers debated how to proceed. NASA finally judged Starliner too dangerous to bring Wilmore and Williams back and transferred them to SpaceX. But the launch of their replacements got stalled, stretching their mission beyond nine months.
President Donald Trump urged SpaceX鈥檚 Elon Musk to hurry things up, adding politics to the stuck astronauts鈥� ordeal. The dragged-out drama finally ended two weeks ago with a flawless splashdown by SpaceX off the Florida Panhandle.
鈥淚t鈥檚 great being back home after being up there,鈥� Williams told The Associated Press in an interview. She waited until she was steadier on her feet before reuniting with her two Labrador retrievers the day after splashdown. "Pure joy.鈥�
Wilmore already has a to-do list. His wife wants to replace all the shrubs in their yard before summer. 鈥淪o I鈥檝e got to get my body ready to dig holes,鈥� he told the AP.
NASA said engineers still do not understand why Starliner鈥檚 thrusters malfunctioned; more tests are planned through the summer. If engineers can figure out the thruster and leak issues, 鈥淪tarliner is ready to go," Wilmore said.
The space agency may require another test flight 鈥� with cargo 鈥� before allowing astronauts to climb aboard. That redo could come by year's end.
Despite Starliner鈥檚 rocky road, NASA officials said they stand behind the decision made years ago to have two competing U.S. companies providing taxi service to and from the space station. But time is running out: The space station is set to be abandoned in five years and replaced in orbit by privately operated labs.
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AP video journalist Lekan Oyekanmi contributed from Houston.
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Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press
