Things did not go as planned.
And when that happens in space, the stakes are very high.
For astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, the end result was an unexpected 286-day stay in space that made headlines across the globe.
Confronting Failures
In June 2024, as astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore were piloting the test mission of the Boeing Starliner towards the International Space Station, five critical thrusters failed for a time, severely impairing their ability to properly navigate the spaceship. The situation was dire enough that protocol called for aborting the docking.
Instead, Williams and Wilmore, in consultation with NASA mission control, took manual control. “We both knew this is not a good situation,” Williams recalled. “But we can’t just sit here and go, ‘we don’t know what to do.’ We actually have to contribute and work with the spacecraft and try to get it to do what it was supposed to do.”
Let’s Make The Best of This
Eventually, Williams and Wilmore successfully docked with the ISS, but the safety of the Starliner remained in question. As a result, NASA decided to return the Starliner to Earth unmanned, and that Williams and Wilmore would stay aboard the ISS until another spacecraft could take them home safely.
That did not happen for 286 days.
A planned eight-day journey extended to nine months. While the view from Earth was that the two astronauts were “stranded,” Williams, like any good leader, saw the detour as an opportunity.
“I love being in space, so it is a joy,” Williams said. After NASA’s decision, Williams was excited by the possibilities. “Once that was made, I think things were clear,” she said. “Okay, now we are going to be part of the next expedition… let’s make the best of this.”
Years of Training for Critical Moments
While high-stakes episodes like the Starliner’s difficulty docking with ISS is the stuff of Hollywood movies, Sunita Williams said real-life troubleshooting is methodical and collaborative.
“When you’re in the moment, especially as a tester and an astronaut for whatever you’re flying, you know that there are risks involved, right? So you are trained as best as you can to make sure you know as much as you can,” Williams shared.
Like any good mission, it was a team effort. “It’s not one person making the decision. There’s a lot of trust involved with the team. They have more data on the ground than we have displayed to just the two of us in the cockpit,” Williams recalled.
For Williams and Wilmore, years on the job have yielded the ability to remain calm and focused for when things don’t go as planned. “It’s learned to some degree, like both of us are test pilots. We’ve been flying for a long period of time. Both of us are a little older in the office. So, you know, we’ve had, we’ve had a little experience,” said Williams.
A Career Filled with Pivots & Possibilities
For Sunita Williams, unplanned pivots have become a defining feature of her extraordinary career.
She wanted to be a veterinarian but didn’t get into the right schools. Her brother Jay, who attended the US Naval Academy, suggested she consider going to school with him in Annapolis. She was accepted and swam competitively while at the academy.
“I really liked it for the teamwork, the discipline,” Williams recalled, but she was disappointed when she wasn’t selected to pursue deep-sea diving for the Navy in part because there was only one available slot for a woman. Instead, she went to the Naval Aviation Training Command. There, she had hoped to learn how to fly jets, but again found herself facing a detour. She was assigned helicopters instead.
“I feel like my whole life has been sort of filled with these unexpected moments,” Williams said of the constant change in plans and unmet expectations. “And maybe it’s a positive attitude, you take what you get, and you make the best of it.”
She found herself fascinated with how helicopters worked. One of her colleagues suggested she would be a good fit for the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. After graduation, she later returned to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School as an instructor. From there, she became interested in the astronaut program. She got her Master’s degree in order to qualify and applied.
She was one of 25 people selected for the 1998 astronaut class, one of only four women.
Sharing Her Hard-Won Wisdom
Williams is happy to share her own experience not only to educate young people about the work being done in space, but also the importance of being open to unexpected paths.
“My biggest piece of advice is, why not get out there and do it and try different things?” She emphasizes that at 17, she had no idea what possibilities existed. “If you think you want to try something, go try it. And if you don’t like it, it’s okay. Try something else.”
She also stresses the importance of being open to failure: “Don’t be afraid to fail, because that indicates to you a couple of things. Like, maybe I didn’t try hard enough… Or maybe this is just not for me, and I could do better.”
After returning to Earth in March 2025 following her extended mission, Williams was struck by one thing above all: how many people cared. Strangers approached her in airports and on streets, expressing relief that she’d returned safely. “I really felt and found that people are nice, people are good, and people care about one another,” she reflected. “We all, honestly, as humans care.”
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