How Faith Sustained Astronaut Butch Wilmore While Stranded in Space for 9 Months
NASA Astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore is revealing more about how his Christian faith strengthened him while spending 286 days on the International Space Station (ISS) — 278 days longer than originally planned. Wilmore also recently shared just how close he and fellow astronaut Suni Williams came to being stranded aboard a malfunctioning Boeing Starliner capsule.
During an expansive interview last week, Wilmore reflected for the first time on how harrowing he and Williams’s initial journey to the space station was last summer. As their Boeing Starliner capsule headed toward the ISS after a successful launch, the vehicle inexplicably lost power to four separate thrusters, leaving Wilmore unable to adequately control it. The two astronauts found themselves floating virtually helpless in the void of space, not sure whether they should either attempt to abort the mission and return to Earth or attempt to dock to the space station.
NASA’s mission control eventually instructed Wilmore to relinquish all control of the capsule so they could attempt a remote reset of the thrusters. “That was not easy to do,” he recalled, as it would mean the capsule would be floating in space completely uncontrolled.
Eventually, the remote reset was able to restore power to two of the four failed thrusters, but that’s when yet another thruster failed. “What if we’d have lost that fifth jet while those other four were still down? I have no idea what would’ve happened,” Wilmore observed. “I attribute to the providence of the Lord getting those two jets back before that fifth one failed.”
At that point, Wilmore was finally able to acquire enough control of the capsule to maneuver it to the docking station at the ISS. But due to the multitude of problems with the Starliner’s thrusters, Wilmore knew their trip home was in jeopardy. “I don’t know that we can come back to Earth at that point,” he recalled.
Wilmore and Williams eventually made the decision not to attempt a return flight to Earth in the faulty Starliner, and their original eight-day mission turned into a nine-month ordeal before a trip home could be arranged aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on 18 March.
Vital Lifeline
Through it all, Wilmore said in an interview with CBN News last Monday that his Christian faith was “vital” to him enduring being marooned in space for so long, along with the prayers that his home church, Providence Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas, offered for him. “It’s not just important. It is everything,” he remarked. “It is beyond important. It is vital to existence, vital to my spiritual well-being.”
Gilmore was even able to lead church devotionals and sing gospel songs like “Amazing Grace” with fellow astronauts as well as church members. “The chance to share the gospel and proclaim Christ Jesus as Lord is the driver,” he explained.
As Gilmore went on to share, what was particularly crucial for him during the months-long stretch in space was the ability to view church services while in orbit.
“The word of God continually filling me, I need it,” he emphasised.
“My pastors are the finest pastors on or off, in this case, the planet. And to worship with my church family was vital. I mean, it’s part of what makes me go. And not only that, I also tied into Grace Baptist Church in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. A buddy of mine is an elder there and a pastor there, and I would watch their service as well every single week, and it was invigorating. It was part of what I need as a believer in Jesus Christ to continue that focus, and [it] assisted me day in and day out, because I need that fellowship, even though it’s fellowship from afar. It’s not like [having] fellowship up close, but still I need it.”
As for gaining perspective on the unexpected trial, Wilmore was unequivocal about the importance of surrendering to divine providence.
“[It was] the Lord’s plan, His purpose,” he insisted. “I’m okay with it, whatever. Is it my plan? No, but my plans are not usually the good plans or the right plans. And the Lord’s always are, regardless of what takes place. God’s word is clear, and I believe it because I’ve lived it. God is always good.”
___
Republished with thanks to The Washington Stand. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Recent Articles:
21 July 2026
5.6 MINS
The Queensland government has failed for a sixth time to have a Christian’s religious freedom case against COVID-19 injection mandates thrown out of court, with a tribunal member describing part of the government’s argument as “difficult to understand”.
21 July 2026
8.2 MINS
We don't talk about social atomisation, do we? Most of us would be hard pressed to define it. Yet it is reshaping our society in ways we barely acknowledge — fragmenting our communities, eroding our connections, and leaving us isolated in the midst of billions.
21 July 2026
4.2 MINS
Dennis Prager has spent fifty years warning that the rejection of God leads to the death of civilisations. His new book, If There Is No God, proves prescient: as Europe crumbles and the secular West fragments, Prager offers what the culture refuses to provide — rational, biblical arguments for why morality cannot exist without the God of the Bible.
21 July 2026
7.7 MINS
In countries with voluntary organ donation systems, patients wait months or years for a transplant. In China, hospitals guarantee matching organs within weeks. That statistical impossibility reveals a horrifying truth: China operates an industrial-scale organ harvesting operation — with the tacit complicity of the Western world.
20 July 2026
19.6 MINS
Rubio told delegates that far-left terrorism, long dismissed as a “partisan fiction”, has escalated into assassinations and coordinated attacks across the globe, and that the ideology behind the violence is a “poisonous resentment”, aimed at destroying what greater men have built.
20 July 2026
5.9 MINS
The United States' election system is "so broken and so vulnerable that no one can possibly defend it" — so said President Trump Thursday night, as he released declassified intelligence alleging Chinese interference, ballot fraud, and a years-long cover-up by intelligence agencies.
17 July 2026
15.2 MINS
The Church is wimpy, and it's destroying the nation. That's the blunt assessment of Rev. Chris Wickland, a UK clergyman who refuses to soften the gospel for perceived cultural acceptance. And he has a point. From the rise of "woke" institutional Christianity to the abdication of prophetic witness, the modern Church has traded its backbone for a desperate attempt to attain a disappearing seat at the table.
