NASA astronauts speak out for the first time following unexpected 9-month mission to space
By Ashley Strickland and Jackie Wattles, CNN upxed 5:55 PM EDT, Mon March 31, 2025

美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局宇航員在經(jīng)歷了意想不到的9個(gè)月的太空任務(wù)后首次發(fā)表講話


Two astronauts whose planned weeklong stay in low-Earth orbit unexpectedly turned into a more than 9-month mission due to spacecraft problems spoke publicly to reporters Monday for the first time since their return to terra firma on March 18.
NASA’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore garnered worldwide attention when issues with their Boeing Starliner vehicle cropped up during a June test flight to the International Space Station. As they waited for an alternative ride home, the pair faced a stream of rhetoric, bolstered by politicians and media, about being “abandoned,” “stranded,” or “stuck” — descxtors the astronauts themselves have denied.
Williams, Wilmore and fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague — who were all part of the Crew-9 mission that ultimately brought the test flight team back to Earth — addressed questions about the Starliner saga during a NASA news conference.

兩名宇航員原計(jì)劃在地球低軌道執(zhí)行為期一周的任務(wù),卻因航天器故障意外滯留太空逾9個(gè)月,于3月18日返回地球后,于本周一首次面向媒體公開講話。
美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局的蘇尼·威廉姆斯和布奇·威爾莫爾在六月份飛往國(guó)際空間站的試飛中,他們所乘坐的波音星際飛船突發(fā)故障,引起了全世界關(guān)注。在他們等待替代飛船返回期間,他們面臨政客及媒體的一連串言論,關(guān)于他們被“拋棄”、“受困”或“滯留”的說法,但以上說法均被宇航員所否認(rèn)。
威廉姆斯、威爾莫爾及最終接他們回地球的"Crew-9"任務(wù)組成員尼克·海格,他們一同在美國(guó)宇航局的新聞發(fā)布會(huì)上回答了有關(guān)星際飛船的意外遭遇。

“We were always coming back, and I think people need to know that,” Williams said. “We’re back to actually, you know, share our story with so many people, because … it’s unique, and there’s some lessons learned to it, and part of that is just resilience and being able to take a turn that was unexpected and make the best of it.”
Williams acknowledged that she and Wilmore knew going into the Starliner test mission that flying a new spacecraft was “unique,” but neither expected all of the attention their extended stay garnered. Once the duo realized they would become part of the space station crew for longer than expected, they “pivoted,” Williams said.
“We are International Space Station crew members, and we’re doing what all of our other friends in the astronaut office do: Go and work and train and and do amazing science experiments up on the International Space Station,” Williams said.

“我們終究會(huì)回來的,我認(rèn)為人們應(yīng)該清楚這一點(diǎn),”威廉姆斯說?!岸鴮?shí)際上,你們看到,我們回來了,我們還會(huì)跟大家分享我們的故事,因?yàn)椤仟?dú)一無二的,我們從中吸取了一些教訓(xùn),其中一部分就是韌性,能夠承受意想不到的轉(zhuǎn)變,并充分利用它?!?br /> 威廉姆斯承認(rèn),她和威爾莫心里很清楚,參加星際飛船的測(cè)試任務(wù),他們駕駛的是“獨(dú)一無二”的新飛船,但兩人未曾料到,他們的長(zhǎng)時(shí)間停留會(huì)引起這么大的關(guān)注。威廉姆斯說,當(dāng)兩人意識(shí)到他們?cè)诳臻g站工作的時(shí)間要比預(yù)期的長(zhǎng)時(shí),他們就“調(diào)整了心態(tài)”。
威廉姆斯說:“我們是國(guó)際空間站的工作人員,我們做的事和其他只航天員朋友沒什么區(qū)別,都是在國(guó)際空間站工作、訓(xùn)練、做令人驚嘆的科學(xué)實(shí)驗(yàn)。”

Williams said she and Wilmore were honored and humbled by the amount of interest in their journey.
“When we came home, (it was) like, wow, there are a lot of people who are interested,” she said. “Very thankful, very amazed that we could hopefully be one positive element to bring people together.”
Both Williams and Wilmore said that Starliner is “very capable.” Given the chance, they would fly it again in the future, according to Wilmore.
“We’re going to rectify all the issues that we encountered,” Wilmore said. “We’re going to fix it, we’re going to make it work. Boeing’s completely committed. NASA is completely committed. And with that, I’d get on in a heartbeat.”

威廉姆斯表示,她和威爾莫爾對(duì)公眾對(duì)他們太空之旅的高度關(guān)注感到既榮幸又謙卑。
他說"返回時(shí)我們真切感受到,(沒想到)會(huì)有這么多人關(guān)心我們,"她說,"即感動(dòng)又驚喜,希望我們的經(jīng)歷能成為凝聚人心的積極因素。"
威廉姆斯和威爾莫爾對(duì)星際飛船的可靠性稱贊有加,威爾莫爾表示,以后如有機(jī)會(huì),我們將再坐一次。
威爾莫爾表示:"我們將徹底解決所有已發(fā)現(xiàn)的問題。不僅要修復(fù)故障,更要確保萬無一失。波音公司已全力投入,NASA也堅(jiān)定支持,有此承諾,我隨時(shí)愿意再去太空。


The astronauts were repeatedly asked about any politics that came into play during their time on the station.
“When we’re up there operating in space, you don’t feel the politics,” Hague said. “You don’t feel any of that.”
During an interview with Fox News on Monday, Wilmore for the first time said he thought “in certain respects, we were stuck.”
But he continued to refute the broader narrative that he and Williams were abandoned.
“Based on how they were couching this? That we were left and forgotten and all? We were nowhere near any of that,” Wilmore said.

威廉姆斯和威爾莫爾多次受到記者追問,詢問他們滯留空間站期間是否受到政治因素影響。
"在太空?qǐng)?zhí)行任務(wù)時(shí),你根本感受不到政治的存在,"(一同返回的)海格強(qiáng)調(diào),"那里完全沒有這些干擾。"
而在周一接受??怂剐侣劜稍L時(shí),威爾莫爾首次松口承認(rèn)"從某些方面看,我們確實(shí)被困住了"。
但他繼續(xù)駁斥關(guān)于兩人遭遺棄的夸大說法。
“按照他們的說法?”我們被拋棄,被遺忘了?我們離這種情況還差得遠(yuǎn)呢,”威爾莫爾說到。

President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, now one of Trump’s top advisers, have repeatedly taken credit for expediting Williams and Wilmore’s return.
Trump and Musk have also accused the Biden Administration of abandoning the astronauts in space for “political reasons,” though there is no publicly available evidence for that assertion.
Wilmore on Monday repeated earlier statements that he “believes” Musk and Trump, though he did not say about what, specifically.
“You’ve given me no reason not to trust you — either one of them,” Wilmore told Fox News when asked what he would say to Trump and Musk. “I am grateful that our national leaders actually are coming in and taking part in our human spaceflight program.”

美國(guó)總統(tǒng)特朗普及其首席顧問、SpaceX首席執(zhí)行官埃隆·馬斯克多次宣稱是他們"促成"了威廉姆斯和威爾莫爾的回歸。特朗普和馬斯克還指責(zé)拜登政府出于“政治原因”將宇航員遺棄在太空中,但該說法迄今未獲任何公開證據(jù)支持。
威爾莫爾周一在接受??怂剐侣劜稍L時(shí),反復(fù)表示"信任"馬斯克和特朗普,但未具體說明信任的是什么。
"你們從未給我質(zhì)疑的理由,"當(dāng)被問及想對(duì)二人說什么時(shí),威爾莫爾表示,"感謝國(guó)家領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人真正參與載人航天事業(yè)。”
當(dāng)被問及會(huì)對(duì)特朗普和馬斯克說些什么時(shí),威爾莫爾向福克斯新聞?wù)f道:“你們從未給我質(zhì)疑的理由,感謝國(guó)家領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人真正參與載人航天事業(yè)。

Astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore talk to reporters during a news conference at Johnson Space Center on March 31 in Houston.
Astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore talk to reporters during a news conference at Johnson Space Center on March 31 in Houston.

尼克·黑格、蘇尼·威廉姆斯和布奇·威爾莫在約翰遜航天中心的新聞發(fā)布會(huì)上與記者見面

Reacclimating to life on Earth
Williams and Wilmore were reassigned to the Crew-9 mission during their monthslong stay on the orbiting laboratory, integrating with space station staff. As their stay faced further extensions, the astronauts acknowledged it was difficult to be away from family and friends on Earth.
“Did I think about not being there for my daughter’s high school year? Of course, but (we) compartmentalize. … I can’t let that interfere with what I’m called to do at the moment,” Wilmore told Fox News. “It’s not about me, it’s not about my feelings. It’s about what this human spaceflight program is about: It’s our national goals.”
Despite the controversial rhetoric about the mission, the astronaut duo also relished the time spent in space.
“It’s fantastic up here. I mean, who wouldn’t want to spend time up here with these views and with this company?” Williams told CNN’s Anderson Cooper from the space station in February.
Hague on Monday praised Wilmore and Williams as highly skilled astronauts who were welcomed as they helped the current station crew work through experiments and other tasks — more than “gap fillers on the station,” he said at the news conference.

重新適應(yīng)地球生活
威廉姆斯和威爾莫爾在空間站滯留幾個(gè)月后,被重新分配到Crew-9任務(wù)中,與空間站其他宇航員一起工作。隨著他們的停留時(shí)間進(jìn)一步延長(zhǎng),他們承認(rèn)遠(yuǎn)離地球親人并不輕松。
“是否對(duì)錯(cuò)過女兒高中畢業(yè)季感到遺憾?當(dāng)然,但(我們)能分得清。我不能讓這件事影響到我目前的工作,”威爾莫在接受福克斯新聞采訪時(shí)表示。“這無關(guān)個(gè)人情感。這是關(guān)于人類太空飛行計(jì)劃的意義:這是我們的國(guó)家目標(biāo)?!?br /> 盡管任務(wù)期間爭(zhēng)議不斷,兩位宇航員仍珍視他們的這段太空時(shí)光。
“這里(太空)太美了。我的意思是,誰不想來這里一邊欣賞景色一邊與同伴工作呢?”今年2月,威廉姆斯曾在空間站對(duì)CNN的安德森·庫(kù)珀說道。
周一的記者見面會(huì)上,海格盛贊威廉姆斯和威爾莫爾這兩位同事,海格表示:"他們絕非簡(jiǎn)單的'空間站補(bǔ)位人員',而是協(xié)助現(xiàn)役乘組完成大量實(shí)驗(yàn)的核心成員——威廉姆斯甚至還當(dāng)上空間站指令長(zhǎng)。"

“They were productive, pushing the station mission forward and Suni was the station commander, so she was calling the shots,” Hague said. “So you get in that environment, that operational environment, the politics, they don’t make it up there. We are working as a part of an international team that spans the globe … and we just figure out how to make it happen. That’s the magic of human spaceflight, is that we can focus on something so positive that pulls people together. And we’ve been doing that for a long time.”
After returning home, Williams said she couldn’t wait to hug her husband and her dogs. She said she’s been feeling good and went for a 3-mile run yesterday — something she says is a testament to the astronauts’ trainers, who are “rocking it” in helping the crew reacclimate to life on Earth again.
“I mean, who would even imagine that you come back from roughly 10 months (in space) and within a week, you run 2 miles at an eight-minute pace,” Wilmore said. “I mean, that’s not even conceivable that the body could handle that. But these folks get us ready to where those type of things happen.”

海格在評(píng)價(jià)兩位同事時(shí)表示:"他們貢獻(xiàn)巨大,不僅推動(dòng)空間站任務(wù)進(jìn)展,威廉姆斯更是承擔(dān)了空間站指令長(zhǎng)重任。“那種環(huán)境中,政治因素毫無生存土壤。我們是一個(gè)國(guó)際團(tuán)隊(duì),我們只在專注共同去實(shí)現(xiàn)目標(biāo)。這就是人類太空飛行的神奇之處,我們可以專注于一些積極的事情,讓它把人們凝聚在一起。這也是我們一慣秉持的理念。"
返回地球后的威廉姆斯迫不及待擁抱丈夫和愛犬。并表示感覺良好,更在回家的次日還完成了3英里跑步——她將此歸功于"表現(xiàn)出色"的宇航員訓(xùn)練團(tuán)隊(duì),正是他們的專業(yè)指導(dǎo)幫助乘組快速適應(yīng)地球生活。
威爾莫爾表示"試想,誰還能在太空駐留近10個(gè)月后,還在一周內(nèi)以8分鐘配速跑完2英里,"威爾莫爾感嘆道,"一般人根本無法實(shí)現(xiàn)。是他們(康復(fù)團(tuán)隊(duì))讓我們創(chuàng)造出這樣的奇跡。"