Starliner astronauts say they 'ran out of time' to return on Boeing spacecraft

The Manila Times

Starliner astronauts say they 'ran out of time' to return on Boeing spacecraft  Barry Wilmore, one of the US astronauts stranded aboard the International Space Station by the malfunctioning Boeing Starliner spacecraft, says in a video press conference aboard the ISS he thought they could have returned on it if given more time. Last week, Wilmore and Sunita Williams watched the Boeing Starliner they rode in a test flight to the ISS launch back to Earth without them aboard.   AFP VIDEO  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe  Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital  Sign up to our newsletters: https://tmt.ph/newsletters   Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #themanilatimes #worldnews #starliner  #astronaut

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00:00Well, Suni Williams has just been named the commander of the space station, she'll take

00:04over in a couple of weeks.

00:05I'm going to let her start off with answering that question.

00:09So I think, you know, what we look forward to is being here and being part of the crew

00:13that's here.

00:14...for that long term.

00:16And so we had to make some decisions on a timeline.

00:20And the timeline came to the point where we had to decide, is Starlander coming back with

00:24us or without us?

00:26And we just did not have enough time to get to the end of that runway where we could say

00:31that we were going to come back with it.

00:32I think we'd have gotten there, but we just ran out of time.

00:36See?

00:37So, yeah, it's been quite an evolution over the last three months.

00:41We've been involved from the beginning through all the processes of assessing our spacecraft

00:45Calypso.

00:47And it was trying at times.

00:50It was some tough times all the way through.

00:53You certainly, as the commander and the PLT of your spacecraft, you don't want to see

00:57it go off without you.

00:59But that's where we wound up.

01:00Alexei and Yvonne here.

01:02So I mean, we're here with our friends.

01:05I think that's really a key part of being on the International Space Station and actually

01:10just doing the work.

01:11So that's, I think the up part is we're here with our friends.

01:14We've got a ride home.

01:16And you know, we're looking forward to the next couple of months and doing a lot of stuff

01:20for the International Space Station.

01:22I sent down my request for a ballot today, as a matter of fact, and they should get it

01:28to us in a couple of weeks.

01:29And absolutely, yes, it's a very important role that we all play as citizens is to be

01:33included in those elections.

01:35And NASA makes it very easy for us to do that.

01:37So we're excited about that opportunity.

01:41And Marsha, same here.

01:43You know, it's a very important duty that we have as citizens and looking forward to

01:47being able to vote from space, which is pretty cool.

01:50I think it's great that we were able to go to space and land safely.

01:52It was wonderful that it made it back.

01:55And the fact that we weren't on it didn't even come into mind at all.

01:58It was never like, oh, we shouldn't.

01:59No, not at all.

02:00I love being up here in space.

02:03It's just fun.

02:05You know, every day you do something that's work, quote unquote.

02:09You can do it upside down.

02:10You can do it sideways.

02:12So it adds a little different perspective.

02:14And you know, about staying up here longer, one of the things I was sort of regretting

02:19about a short duration flight is I wasn't going to be able to share it with a lot of

02:23people.

02:24One of the things I like to do up here is sort of write like a little recap of the week

02:28and send it down to people so they can see what fun we're having and what, you know,

02:32what kind of work we're doing up here, because it is so much different than being on Earth.

02:37And I think it opens up that door of making you think a little bit differently, just perspective.

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