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Good afternoon and welcome to NASA's Johnson Space Center for our Crew 9 news conference today. We are joined today here in person with our Crew 9 astronauts Nick Haig, Sunny Williams, and Butch Wilmore. We'll be taking questions from here in the room and on our phone bridge, but before we do that, we'll kick it off with some opening remarks from our crew. Nick, go ahead. Thanks, Courtney. Um, so I wanted to kick off with words that would describe what the crew 9 mission meant, um, and, and I think Ultimately it's unique like every space flight mission tends to be, uh, and you don't know exactly how they're going to play out, but I think that the, the Crew 9 mission when it comes to it, uh, uh, it, it, it highlights to me safety and the importance of the mission and the balance of those two. Uh, as you all know, uh, back in the, uh, the early fall, uh, NASA was balancing the safe return of Sunny and Butch with the the need to continue the mission that's been going on board the space station for 2.5 decades up there, uh, performing research for the benefit of humanity and, and, and so there was *** decision made to send Alex and I up with *** couple of empty seats and, and, uh, and integrate Butch and Sonny into the crew of Crew 9. Uh, and then bring them back at the end of *** long duration space flight mission. And so we sit here today, minus Alex, who's recuperating in in Russia right now uh with friends and family, thankfully, and we sit here as *** testament to the success of that mission. So I look forward to answering your questions. Yeah, sure, um, just wanted to say thanks, thanks to Nick and Alex for coming up and and getting us and bringing us home and thanks to so many who prepared us for our mission, um, the, you know, the commercial crew program with, uh, NASA and Boeing as well as SpaceX, uh, really got us ready to go. All of the trainers here at Johnson Space Center, the mission control teams all over the country in Florida to California, so. Throughout throughout the whole country as well as what we're doing now, you know, our teams here are getting us ready to get, you know, rehab and get ready to take on new challenges. So, you know, feeling good um since we've been back almost 2 weeks now actually went out and ran 3 miles yesterday, so I will give myself *** little pat on the back. Our trainers are are rocking it and and getting us ready to get back, uh, to help out with the new astronauts as they're getting ready for their mission. So the biggest thing I want to say was thank you. Yeah, thank you, Sonny. Let me start off with, uh, an analogy, *** sports analogy. Uh, this very difficult job that we take part in, it's *** team sport. It encompasses, uh, Organizations throughout NASA throughout the country coming together, the commercial crew program headquarters, the International Space Station program working together day in and day out behind the scenes, uh, diligently to make all of this work together and then you couple that with *** nation that comes together and cares about the human. Spaceflight program and praises for us and and what's taking place, it goes beyond understanding honestly. And then this organization also is incorporated into an international organization that reaches beyond our own borders and brings in the world like no other organization on or off the planet. And I can tell you it's simply *** privilege to take part in all of that. All right, thank you all for your opening remarks. We will go ahead and start taking questions now. If you're in the room, please raise your hand, and we'll be sure to get *** microphone over to you. If you're joining from our phone bridge, please press 1 when you're ready to enter the queue. And due to the high volume of questions today that we are receiving, we ask that media start with one question, and if we have time for *** second round, we'll come back around to you. We'll start here in the first row with any questions? Mark, go ahead. Mark Strassmann, CBS News. Welcome back, everyone. Good to talk to all of you again. Um, we're meeting in this auditorium for *** reason. There are roughly 60 news outlets represented here, another 120 or so on the phone. But and Sonny, have you been surprised by the continuing and intense interest in your space saga? I would have to say yes absolutely you know it's it's interesting we go and launch we knew it was *** little bit unique obviously first time flying on *** new spacecraft so yeah that was that was interesting but you know then life goes on up there and I mentioned uh yesterday you know we pivoted and we're International Space Station crew members and we're doing what all of our other friends in uh in the astronaut office do is go and work and train and and do amazing science. Experiments up on the International Space Station. So you know, I think you sort of get maybe *** little bit tunnel visioned in what your job is. So, you know, the, you know, do your job type of thing, right? And so you're not really aware of what else is going on down here. I hate to say that, you know, maybe the world doesn't revolve around us, but we revolve around the world. It's like something like that. But, you know, I think we're just really focused on what we're doing and trying to be part of the team. Making sure we pulled our weight for the team, of course we heard some things, and I'll let you know, obviously hand this off to Butch, heard some stuff from our friends and family that people were interested and wondering what was going on and concerned about our health and all that kind of stuff while we're up there. But I mean we were just part of the team doing the job, filling in wherever we could, and then knowing that there's rotational flights and we'll be coming home eventually on *** rotational flight. So no, I don't think we were. Were to the degree, um, pretty honored and humbled by the fact of when we came home like wow, there's, there are *** lot of people who are interested, very thankful, very amazed that we could hopefully be one positive element to bring people together. Yeah, I don't know that there's much I could add to that. Just thankful for *** nation that cares, *** nation that prays, and *** nation that is involved in the processes that are important to all of us. OK, we'll take our next question here in the room. Tom, go ahead. Hi Tom Costello with NBC News. Again, welcome back. Nice to see you all. Everybody's been thinking about you and worried about you, and I'm wondering, once you got your feet back on terra firma, what's the first thing both of you wanted to do and were there any foods you were craving after 9+ months? Go ahead. Oh yeah, I wanted to hug my husband and hug my dogs, and I'll say that order in that order, but maybe, maybe not. No, I'm just joking, but Um, of course, food, I, you know, something that's just like for home for me, like something that is very, you know, reminds you of home, and I had my father was *** vegetarian, so I had *** good grilled cheese sandwich when I got home. So that reminded me of him. Yeah, certainly embracing the family again, but also the opportunity, and I've already said it *** couple of times, is just to say thank you to *** nation that, uh, got involved in all of this. Uh, it's, it makes it special not just for us but for all. I think our nation as *** whole, so thank you. All right, we'll take our next question right here in the front row. Thank you. My question's for Sonny. When you first got off the plane in Houston, we saw you hug Zena Cardman, and there was *** nice exchange. If you could describe what happened and your gratitude towards the crew members who stepped aside so that you'd have seats coming back. It's *** great observation, so thank you very much. Xena's awesome. Stephanie Wilson, awesome. Um, you know, this, when this whole thing was unraveling, uh, like my heart went out because it's sort of like wow, you're waiting for your space flight, specifically Xena as her first flight like wow, you know, it's, it's *** little bit rough, um, to know that you, you were, you're gonna be moved to *** different flight. But at the same time, um, you know, she's, she is an awesome person, an awesome astronaut. She's gonna get the opportunity and you know, this just wasn't the right flight for her to be on at that moment in time. And so I just, I just gave her *** big huge hug. I told her that I used her Crew 9 shirt when we were up there for *** photo op, but I packed it back up real nicely and put it in her stuff. And you know, *** little joking aside, I just wanted to really tell her thank you for taking taking one for the team, and that's what our office is about, but she needed to have that acknowledgement. OK, we'll take one more question here in the room and then we'll head to our phone bridge. Hi, this question is for Sunnita. I'm Jeff Saperstone, by the way, from NBC in Boston. *** lot of people in your hometown in Needham, they've been watching this bit by bit, every moment, yeah, everybody at the elementary school, there was *** big watch party for you when you came home. What's your message to them? They've been so anxiously awaiting for you to return. Oh well, I'm back. First and foremost, we, we were always coming back and I think people need to know that and we're back to actually, you know, share our story with so many people because, you know, it's, it's it like like you all mentioned it's slightly unique and there's some lessons learned to it and part of that is just resilience and being. Able to take *** turn that was unexpected and make the best of it and I think that is the biggest thing that I want to um you know pass down particularly to to kids who think that their you know their life should be the straight arrow to where you what you want to do and you're just gonna get there well, you know, sometimes it takes some turns some rights and some lefts and you just keep focused on your goal and um other doors might be open for you so I think that's the the biggest message. All right, we'll head to our phone bridge. Our first question there is from Marsha Dunn with the Associated Press. Welcome back, everybody. Butch, this question is for you. Where do you lay the blame for your Starliner test flight? Clearly Starliner was not ready to fly when it did. Whom do you hold responsible for everything that happened? Thanks. That is *** question that I cannot answer in *** couple of comments, but I'll start with me. There were some issues, of course, that happened with Starliner. There were some issues, of course, that happened that prevented us from returning on Starliner. And I'll start with me. There were questions that I as the commander of the spacecraft that I should have asked, and I did not. At the time. I didn't know I needed to, and maybe you could call that hindsight, but I'll start and point the finger and I'll blame me. I could ask some questions and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide. Um, so blame, that's *** term I don't like that term, but certainly there's responsibility throughout, uh, all the programs, uh, and certainly you can, you can start with me. Um, responsibility with Boeing, yes, responsibility with NASA. Yes, all the way up and down the chain. We all are responsible. We all own this, and we are in this business, trust, you cannot do this business without trust. You have to have ultimate trust and for someone to step forward and and these different organizations say, hey. I'm culpable for *** part of that issue, that goes *** long way to maintaining trust. So we're not going to look back and say this happened or that happened and that person's or that issue or that entity is to blame. We're going to look forward and say what are we going to use our lessons learned from this whole process and make sure that we are successful in the future. This is *** tough business. The analogy about it is, it's always *** curvy road. It's never straight in this business and minimizing those curves, curves and effectual being systems and processes in effect to, to prevent some of these curves is what we have to do as we leave low Earth orbit and go beyond to the moon and beyond that. So we're gonna look forward and that's, uh, that's the focus. All right, our next question on the phone bridge is from Anthony with Spectrum News. Hello, uh, welcome back, everyone. It's, uh, nice seeing everyone, uh, return healthy and safe. Uh, I have *** question for, uh, both you, Sonny, and, uh, Butch. Uh, given an opportunity, would you guys, uh, go up on Starliner again? Yes, Because we're going to rectify all the issues that we that we encounter. We're gonna fix. We're gonna make it work. Uh, Boeing's completely committed. NASA is completely committed, and with that I get on in *** heartbeat. Yeah, I would, I would agree that the spacecraft is really capable. Uh, there were *** couple things that need to be fixed like Butch mentioned, and, um, folks are actively working on that, uh, but it's, it is *** great spacecraft and it has *** lot of capability that other spacecraft don't have and to see that thing successful and to be part of that program is an honor. Our next question is from Jackie with the Times of London. Yes, hello and welcome back to Earth. I wondered about the stuck, stranded, marooned narrative and to what extent were you aware of that narrative playing out around that down here and has that been frustrating for you to have to address. Thank you. I'm sorry that was *** little garbles the stuck maroon narrative. We heard about that. Yeah, we heard about that. Somebody mentioned that we've said this before. We had *** plan, right? The plan went way off for what we had planned, but because we're in human space flight, we prepare for any number of contingencies because this is *** curvy road. You never know where it's gonna go. We prepare for this. So we as Sony used the term and it's *** great term we pivoted to all that training we did that we didn't think we needed to do and *** lot of people didn't think we needed to do, but we did it anyway as we pivot. to this other preparation and that is what makes human space flight. Your human spaceflight program special. It is hard, like I said, and preparing for any number of contingencies is what we do. It happened to be me and Sonny involved in this, but it could have been any one of the astronauts. There's 40 or so of us eligible for assignment. It would have been any one of us that would have been in the same situation, I could have been in the same situation and would have done the exact same thing that we did because they would have gone prepared just like we did. Yeah, and one addition to that, you know, this is *** lot bigger than You know, butch and myself, like we've talked about already, this is ***, this is the International Space Station program and there's *** lot of, you know, wheels that are turning and wickets that are that we have to go through to get people up to the International Space Station to do all of the amazing science that we're doing up there. We recognize that we know that just like anybody else in the astronaut office, and we came as Bush has mentioned before, prepared and we are ready to do that pivot and be part of that bigger thing. That's not just about us knowing that everybody on the ground, there's *** huge team of people like I quickly mentioned in my quick thank you but there's *** huge group of people who are looking at the whole program and understanding how and what was the best time and way to get us back home. We knew that and we were ready to wait until that decision was made and that was fine. And I'll also add that we're grateful for people that I don't think they were looking just at us when they make. we can do this, we can do that. They're looking what's best for the human spaceflight program for our nation's goals. They're not looking just about Sonny and Butch, and we appreciate those entities that do that and reach out and say, hey, we can do this, we can do that, we can do that. And NASA says, Hey, we got *** plan. We came prepared. Here's what our plan is, and we think this is the best plan because it doesn't disrupt the flow of how these missions lay out. So and that's the one we went with, yeah. All right, we'll take our next question here in the room. Andrea, go ahead. Thank you guys for being available today. Um, so your mission became unusually political. Given your experience, do you think other astronauts are going to get nervous that they could be caught in the middle of *** political fight? And is there *** point where, you know, this starts to jeopardize the safety of *** mission when you start looking at all these politics that come into play? Thank you. You know, I think Nick's got some good insight on that. Good job. So, so the way I'd like to answer that is that when we're up there operating in space, You don't feel the politics. You don't feel any of that. It's focused strictly on mission and, and, and, you know, if I, I step back *** little bit to the question before. Butch and Sonny talk up here. They make it sound like, you know, well, you know, everybody figured out what they could do with us. The reality is they are highly skilled, very technically competent, and it took everything I had on every day to keep up with them as they're moving along. So they, they were more than just gap fillers on the station. They were productive, pushing the station mission forward, uh, and Sunny was the station commander, so she was calling the shots, um. So you get in that environment, that operational environment, the politics, they don't, they don't make it up there. um, we are working as *** part of an international team that spans the globe and works with, you know, half *** dozen mission control centers spread around the globe that are talking in multiple languages, and we just figure out how to make it happen and that's the magic of human spaceflight is that we can focus on something so positive that pulls people together, um, and we've been doing that for *** long time. All right, we'll take our next question here in the room. Hi, um, I'm Jawan with KPRC, the NBC affiliate in Houston. Um, this question is for Butch. I actually stopped by your church right before I came here, and I heard that you were still attending your church services from space. Can you tell me *** bit about why that was important for you to do? Uh, well, goodness, the word of God can continually infilling me. I need it. Um, my pastors are the finest pastors on or off in this case the planet and to tie in and and to worship with my church family was vital. I mean, it's part of what makes me go and, uh, not only that, I also tied into Grace Baptist Church in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, *** buddy of mine, uh, is ***, is an elder there and *** pastor there, and I would watch their service as well. Every single week, um, and it was, it was invigorating. It was, it was part of what I need as ***, as *** believer in Jesus Christ to continue that, um, focus it assisted me day in and day out because I need, I need that fellowship, even though it's fellowship from afar, uh, and it's not like being fellowship, uh, up close, but still I need it. So yeah, thank you for that. OK, we'll head back to our phone bridge. Next up is Ryan with NASA Spaceflight.com. Hi, thank you. For the whole crew, of course this narrative that's being pushed out has made your mission probably the most popular NASA mission to the general public for as long as I can remember, probably since the retirement of the shuttle. But for the whole crew, do you think this extra attention has been *** net positive or *** net negative for the agency's sort of popularity and the spaceflight industry as *** whole? Thank you. I'll start with this one, yeah, um, you know, it's again an honor that actually people are paying attention and I'm very thankful that people are paying attention and you know sometimes good news bad news, it's just news and it's good for space exploration is and that's what we're all about, you know, our mission of course building and uh working on the International Space Station was just awesome and we all had the opportunity to do that but we also have bigger goals. Of exploring our solar system going back to the moon, going on to Mars and to get people understanding that it is hard, it is difficult, and what we do up there is really awesome and I think at least that we had *** little bit of that that came with with the interest in this mission and if we can um perpetuate that and tell people *** little bit more and have the opportunity, the forum to do that I'm very thankful for that. All right, our next question is from Nicole with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Hi there. Could you perhaps talk about how difficult it was being away from your friends and family, particularly since you hadn't prepared for that? Difficult Yes, I would say it was difficult. It wasn't in the preparation, but in my family we talk about these possibilities. We discussed all of this. We never said we were going to be gone for 9 months, but it turned out that way. But the discussions we had, and it's not just discussions prior to the mission launch, this is the way we've trained our daughters from the time they were born because I am, you know, their dad isn't *** unique, um, occupation, right? This is not the norm leaving the planet, and they understand that and, uh, they again use that term pivoted and got on board understanding that this is part of what families that, that and, and these type of businesses do and it's not just in human spaceflight. This is military armed forces, uh, um, police forces. All across all different types of, of, uh, occupations that are involved in the possibility of extended stays away and, uh, we're not unique in that. And so they understand that, uh, they, they have friends that have parents in other areas where they've been involved in similar type situations and all of that came together and, uh, you know, the Lord's help, we persevered and they persevered and I can tell you I am very proud of them. We'll take another question on our phone bridge and then head back into the room. Our next question is from Tom with Sky News London. Hello, and thanks for taking my question. Congratulations on your extended edition and your return, um. Although the political situation around this bring *** lot of attention to space and International Space Station, some of the statements were made during your stay up there caused embarrassment to NASA, forced them to make corrections to statements. Um, now that you're back, um. Did the politics around your stay make *** difficult situation worse? I'm not sure I understood. I didn't understand that part. Yeah, you came in just, um, you were broken up just *** little bit. Could you please try to repeat your question one more time? Yeah, um, I will. Yes, can you hear me? I was asking whether, um, the, although the political wrangling around your extended stay in space brought *** lot of attention to human space flights. Did some of the some of the political statements raised caused embarrassment to NASA, forced to make denials about various things that were offered and not offered, and sometimes your astronaut colleagues did the politics around your mission make *** difficult situation worse? Yeah, thank you for the question. You know, I, I, I talked about the, you know, how the politics kind of they don't make it up there when we're trying to make operational decisions. So as the, you know, the commander of Crew 9 responsible for the safety of this crew and getting them back safely, um, I, I can tell you that that. The entire time up there, you know, I launched with that singular objective of of showing up to the station and having to integrate Butch and Sonny into *** crew with Alex and myself, and, and then we were planning, you know, from day one to return toward the end of end of February. That all predicated on the fact that we would have *** replacement crew show up and we'd have adequate handover with that crew before we left. Uh, that's important to maintain the mission of the International Space Station to continue pushing, uh, research and exploration. Uh, and that was never in question the entire time. Uh, there were, there was, uh, uh, there were. There were *** lot of options that were discussed, uh, and, and the ground team and the team on the ground, you know, we've alluded to it *** couple times already is gigantic, uh, and, and everybody was working with singular focus on how do we, how do we. In the Crew 9 mission at the right time and maintain the safety and the success of the space station mission and you know launching in September, given all the unique dynamics surrounding this mission and coming back originally targeting the end of February and and hitting the middle of March, that's pretty much on target if you look at the track record of human spaceflight. It's dynamic, it's challenging. The weather doesn't always cooperate, but we somehow we figure out how to make it work. All right, we will take our next question here in the room. 26 here in Houston. Welcome back to H Town. Uh, Sonny and Butch, both of you all have *** long history of being active in athletes, but with that being said, obviously you all spent nearly 9 months in space. What does that, uh, recuperation and recovery process look like getting acclimated back here to Earth? I'll I'll start, um, I can tell you we have *** group of individuals, astronaut strength conditioning and rehabilitation specialists, and we are directly integrated with them day in and day out. They send us protocols to work out and I can tell you, I'm not as young as I used to be. But I was stronger on space station doing more weight and more reps on exercises than I have in my entire life because this group of professionals worked to get us stronger and stronger and stronger. We're trying to minimize muscle atrophy, minimize our bone loss. So if we go to other planets, the moon and other planets, uh, in the, in the foreseeable future, that we will be able to function. When we get there, it's *** whole science built around this, this team of individuals that are working to help us better understand human physiology and what zero gravity does to it and how we can mitigate the effects of the bone loss and the muscle muscle atrophy. So day in and day out, I mean, I, I worked out every single day. We went into quarantine on the 22nd of April and starting on the 22nd of April. Well, I never missed *** single day of workout because your body can recuperate in zero gravity. It doesn't have the normal stresses of gravity on it all the time, so you work out real hard, you hurt for an hour and it finally fades away and you're ready to go the next day. So I applaud those individuals. They are making huge gains in the preparation to go beyond low Earth orbit, and it's *** science that is taking place day in and day out and has for years, and we're still learning and we're still progressing. Yeah, it, uh, like day 2 and 65 on the *** red because it counts all your, uh, days that you go and do *** workout. I was thinking I wish the hay was in the barn, but every single day, just like what you're saying, you gotta get on the machine and and work out and it it it actually is *** really great stress relief to be able to have that time up there. And run or bike or lift weights. It's really great and the the the folks that Butch is talking about is along with the nutritionists really are looking out for us and making sure that when we get back here to planet Earth with gravity, we'll be able to function. So yeah, it's an adjustment when we get back and they're here, they're here right with us from day one when we landed, uh, ready. To see one evaluate us and see how we're doing and then work on *** protocol to get us back and like I said, I sneakily went for *** run yesterday, but that's all as *** result of their hard work. Yeah, I mean, who would, who would ever get, even, even imagine that you come back from 10 months in space, roughly 10 months, and within *** week you run 2 miles at an 8 minute pace. I mean that that's not, that's not even conceivable that the body could handle that, but these folks get us ready to where those type of things happen. OK, we'll take our next question here in the room. Yes, hello. I'm just wondering, you know, there are *** lot of people that depend on jobs here in the aerospace industry in the Houston area, 23,000 total. In the past, um, when there have been issues with NASA spacecrafts, there have been delays, and now we have another issue with the Boeing Starliner. Is there any concern that your issues with Boeing may delay future projects, future missions, and what would you say to one of your fellow astronauts before they go up on another test flight? Well it's *** great question. Yeah, it's *** great question, and you know, I think we all have alluded to it. There's lessons learned and that that's like *** piece of hope, right? We're not just sitting here doing the same thing over and over again and we're learning from every mistake potentially or maybe maybe *** decision that we've made and how we could make that better and and and do better the next time when we go to the moon, we won't have an international space station to maybe take *** stop at. We really have to get it right and. Because of our mission, I think that highlighted some areas where maybe we need to work on and get it right for our fellow astronauts. I think they're encouraged by that, right? You, you learn and you move on and you get better and I think that's part of the learning process. It's part of the exploration process. I mean we we are scheduled on Wednesday to meet with Boeing leadership. Um, the program managers, um, senior, uh, chief engineers to discuss some of these issues they want to come together with us, Sonny and myself, because we lived through this with them and get on board with what the future looks like and having flight crew with background in tests and acquisition involved in the process. going forward to make sure that we're dotting every i and crossing every t um um but still that doesn't mean that you're guaranteed success in anything like we've said many times this is *** tough business and uh we're learning all the time to go further and further and further. We'll take another question here in the room. Shang from New York Times. This is for you. I was wondering if you could talk about. Your personal future. Sorry. There's been *** lot of talk about this uncertainty about the future of the human spaceflight program, suggestions that ISS should be over in *** few years. There should be *** pivot from the moon to Mars. How do you, how astronauts feel about these potential changes and you know, 3 years is *** lot longer than 8 months. It So we've, we've each been able to do multiple missions, uh, to the space station, um, and, and I'll let Butch and Sonny, uh, add on to this, but one of the things that I noticed was *** dramatic increase in the complexity and the just the weightiness of the experiments that we were conducting this time around on the station since 6 years ago when I was last there, um, and it just gives you the sense that we are in. The golden age of the space station right now in terms of the return on investment and what we're able to do there and it's not just focused on return to, you know, benefit the Earth, it's also focused on enabling all those things that we're going to need as we go to the moon and on to Mars and so I am really optimistic when I think about the future of human space flight. Yeah, I would add on to, you know, it was over *** decade since I've been up there last, and I was pretty excited about what was going on. There was *** lot going on when we first got there. It was an honor to be working with Crew 8 and seeing all that they're doing and just trying to help them, uh, with their stuff and then, you know, being, you know, prime moving up to the prime spots for Crew 9 and Expedition 72 as we, we took on *** lot of experiments ourselves as well as spacewalks and what the space station is doing, uh. To help us in exploration is really encouraging and it's and it's exciting and I, you know, I'm *** little envious of the future astronauts, you know, the guys who are coming behind us, they're gonna have so many wonderful, uh, opportunities to do the same as us add to that exploration add to trying to find the answers to the next questions. um, it's, it's gonna be an exciting future so I'm not, I'm not worried about, uh, aerospace industry. I think there's *** lot going on and it's ***, it's *** great time to be in it. We'll take our next question right here. Hi, Ed Lavandera with CNN. Thanks for taking the time today. Um. When you reentered the Earth's atmosphere and came back to gravity, can you talk specifically about any kind of weird, either sensations or experiences that you've had dealing with that over the last couple of weeks? And more importantly, did you know that you guys have been greeted by dolphins when you splashed out? I can tell you that returning from space to through the atmosphere inside of *** 3000. *** degree fireball of plasma is weird regardless of how you look at it. It doesn't matter what type. Yeah, it doesn't matter what type. It's thrilling. um, it's amazing. I remember thinking about the structure of the capsule and the stresses that it was taking that was that was ongoing as the drugs came out and the whole capsule starts shaking and twisting. Um, and thinking about the stresses taking place and going, wow those hope those hope those cables hold and then the parachutes open up and then you're like I I've said it many times there's not *** better feeling returning from space that the parachutes open and work and uh I didn't have the view in front of me and thankfully Nick did. He had *** view of the camera going out right off the top and he said 3 parachutes, good pair 4 good parachutes, and I tell you what, it's *** great feeling and it's uh exhilarated. because this again, I can't help because it's within me. This is our national focus, national goals. We don't do this because NASA decides to do this or this or this. This is Congress and everything coming together to effect *** human spaceflight program with *** purpose, and part of that purpose includes bringing those astronauts back to Earth, and it's *** thrilling ride like no other that you could imagine. And satisfy. And I had requested dolphins as kind of *** joke. Somehow someday pulled it off. Yeah, I'll just, I just hats off like but said to Nick for he's just commentating the whole way down so there was obviously we, we had trained this and gone over it while we're up on the space station and reviewed, but just to hear everything as it was ticking along, it's just really awesome to like you can envision it. uh, you had *** display. I think there's *** camera that goes up right to to see it and Butch and I both had *** window on either side where we were and. I was watching through the window as much as I could, but then all of *** sudden, you know, with the heating it glazes over and then you can't see outside. Um, *** funny thing that happened though after you can't see, you can still sort of see through it and we knew it was daylight and we knew the folks were coming out to rig the spacecraft, and I see *** little tennis shoe sort of going in front of the window. So I'm like, OK, our friends are here, getting us ready to get back on the boat, and that was, that was pretty special too. I didn't see *** fin though. I wish I had saw *** fin. OK, we'll head to our phone bridge. Our next question from Margaret Smith. Hi everyone, this is Margaret Smith from Worcester, Massachusetts, Robert God it started it all. Thanks for taking the time today, and my question to both of you is, um, for those who maybe are not especially familiar or who may sort of question the need for the space station, can you make the case for why that work is important. why the why the space station is important. Oh, the space station is, is amazing, right? So just sort of like we've talked about *** little bit earlier in this conversation, so we're doing *** bunch of stuff like butch alluded to physiology understanding what happens to humans as they're in space for *** longer period of time. Um, that, that brings in *** lot of science experiments in chemistry and biology. Some of that stuff all comes back to Earth because we're doing some amazing stuff in the microgravity environment. Some of it can is mirrored, for example, in our, in our, in our own human bodies. And so there's *** lot of stuff that's happening for us for exploration for the humans, uh, as well as. For Earth and then as Nick alluded to, there's all sorts of systems and other things that we were we're testing up there to help us take those next steps to go back to the to the moon and on to Mars figuring out all these exploration systems including docking vehicles like different types of spacecraft that we have up there other types of commercial spacecraft that are coming up for resupply that's all *** huge program to get us to. Um, understand how we're going to take the next steps in exploration. I can't help also but talk about STEM. I mean, all of this is STEM, right? Science, technology, engineering, and math, and I'm hoping. The work that we've done up there also encourages the next generation of kids to understand that what how important that is and how they can become involved. We did lots of experiments up there with kids and universities and companies trying out new guidance navigation control algorithms and robots that were flying inside the space station competitions, for example, for them. And that's pretty awesome that you can really touch and talk to kids on the ground as you're doing experiments up there and they have their finger on the pulse of science experiments and they can understand that and think to themselves, I could be part of this one day. Our next question on the phone bridge is from Neil with ITV News. Congratulations on *** great job, everyone. Sonny, can I ask how your body is recovering to life with gravity after 9 months? And Butch, what's your message to others from your experience, the delays that you guys faced, and any lessons in patience for the rest of us down here? Oh, I think I'm doing OK. Uh, I was just joking around and showing off *** little bit, but, um, no, seriously, we talked *** little bit about our, uh, group, the Astronautrength reconditioning folks that are, um, getting us back in shape and every day feeling better and better. It's pretty much *** miracle to see how you how your human body can adapt. I mean, the first day we got back when I would all of us came down the ladder and greeted everybody, um, it was *** little. But we're all *** little bit wobbly at that time and it's amazing within 24 hours how the neuro vestibular system kicks in your brain understands what's going on and then the agility and the weight lifting um that occurs in the next week that makes you feel good enough to actually, like I mentioned, go out, run, actually lift weights, get in there, do squats and deadlifts and stuff already. That's pretty incredible. So, um, I knew it was gonna happen. We all knew it. We've all flown before. We all knew that there's just *** little bit of *** hump to get over, and then you can get back on it and hope to do *** couple of races in the springtime. Yeah, I think the clear message is that like I said when I started, it takes, it takes *** team. It takes *** team of motivated and passionate individuals. We don't have *** human spaceflight program. You don't have folks sitting up here in *** blue suit without the massive team that's making it all happen. Uh, we get to ride the pointy end of the rocket. It is wonderful. We get to go to the space station, we're the arms and the eyes for PIs here here on Earth. Um, they're the ones that are doing the hard work. We're just setting up and doing and switching and changing, um, so it takes *** team, and I would say any part of this team is *** great and wonderful place to be and because we're proud of all of them because we don't have it without them. Our next question is from Marcia Smith with Space Policy Online. Thanks so much for taking my question, but you mentioned that you're going to be meeting with the Boeing leadership to talk about Starliner, and I'm wondering, are you surprised that after all these months, I mean, it's been almost what, 7 months since Starliner landed, that they still haven't resolved all these problems? And will you and Sonny be assigned to work with them over these next many months getting Starliner ready? Um, OK, so *** couple of questions there. Am I surprised? I'm not surprised. I mean this, like we've said it several times again, human space flight is hard. Uh, it's not that no work has been done to this point. There's *** great deal of work being done, but we have insight that not many other people have. We worked this program for 6 years before we launched. Uh, we, we talked to everyone up and down in the chain of command, and we have insight that other people don't have, and we want to share that as much. as possible we try to share it from orbit, but that's hard, right? We're not face to face is, is, is how you communicate. It's very difficult to communicate when you can't even see the other person that you're talking to. So we've had some conversations, but now it's time to get serious and get together and talk about some of these issues and some of these things and get us and not get us there we're already tracking on the right path, but maybe *** little tweaking here and there because of some insight that we'll be able to give them. That's, that's the purpose of that being. And they're eager to do it as are we. We'll take our next question here in the room. Jacob Rascon, KHOU 11, I wonder what you would say about the life lesson. I think we can all relate to. We've all made plans. We've all been excited about those plans, and we've all watched those plans kind of fall apart. What would you say about what allows you to meet the moment with courage, with serenity. Uh, or maybe you didn't, you know, internally, but what would you say about that life lesson I think we can all relate to. Well, I'll start. I'll start, um, I'm sure you want to add you, both of you, because, um, I think every flight is *** little bit different than what you go in planning it to be. It doesn't matter if it was this one or many other flights or many things in life just like you alluded to, right? Um, I think the go to thought there is what is the opportunity in front in front of me? Like it's not *** missed opportunity it's actually another opportunity that I didn't really think about and wow, that opens *** lot of, like I mentioned earlier, *** lot of doors or *** lot of things to learn, um, so it, I think it was ***. It's great. I think that's the that's the point I think of the whole thing is like when something doesn't go your way, you just have to take the blinders off and look around you and see what other really great things are waiting for you and then just take advantage of that learn as much as you can while you're wherever you are, whatever your situation is and and move on from there and then share that lesson. Well, I, I, I sort of had *** similar question on orbit and I, I think my answer would be similar, um. Life is, uh, our life, all of our lives are bound up in many things. For me, and I it's, it's faith in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Um, he is the end all be all. He, um, forgives us, uh, he teaches us when his word says about being content in all situations because he's working out His plan and His purposes for, uh, his glory and our good, and I believe that because the Bible says that, and that's the message that I. Lived, we lived it. My family lived it. We taught them these things throughout their lives, and, uh, that's contentment. It doesn't mean always happy. It doesn't mean there's no pain, but content and knowing that God's in control, sovereign God's in control, working out His plan and His purpose. And you might say, well, goodness, that wasn't *** very good thing. God did that. Well, he's working out His plan and His purpose. I mean, who's who's lived *** life without pain? I mean, no one that's the nature of the of of existence who's lived *** life without sorrow, who's lived *** life without uh challenges? It grows us. We learn from it and that's the focus that I try to take from it what's the Lord trying to show me and what's he's teaching me because there's so much to learn in life and there's so much to learn from this evolution and I think we're all, I know my daughters are better off for it and I'm grateful for that and and I think we are as well. If there's any additional questions here in the room, please be sure to raise your hand and we'll get *** microphone over to you. In the meantime, we'll head over to the phone bridge to Josh withspace.com. Hi, thank you all so much for doing this. Um, this question's for all three of you. What were the most out of this world and your favorite experiments or tech demos you got to be *** part of on this mission? And for Williams and Wilmore specifically, did your, did the extension of your mission create any new opportunities for experiments or research that was not originally planned for the expedition? You should stop, sure. Um So while I was up there we performed about 150 different experiments uh of those the ones that you know the most about are the ones where you end up being one of the guinea pigs in the experiment. Uh, so there's about *** dozen different experiments where we were doing things to me and seeing how my body adapted. Uh, whether that was, uh, *** vascular aging experiment where we're measuring how stiff my arteries get because life in space, uh, tends to manifest itself as accelerated aging and so we can better understand how the human body responds to that and hopefully provide some treatments on the ground to help with with problems that as you get older you encounter. Uh how our immune system works. I did *** whole study on the immune system and how my body was responding. Life on orbit tends to suppress the immune system. And why does that happen? We're trying to understand that so that we can help design better treatments on the ground, but also understand how we can support crews that go deeper into space on longer missions. Um, probably one of the most uh shocking experiments. uh, Butch and Sonny got me to got to watch me wire myself up to uh muscle stimulation pads and uh and shock myself and trying to figure out how do we, how do we keep our muscles strong. When we don't have access to all the equipment we have on the International Space Station, because as we go to the moon and on to Mars, that's *** lot of extra mass. And if we can do it with smaller equipment, maybe that works. The side benefit of that is anybody that's been bedridden on the ground, that's also *** treatment for how you can support somebody that's been been kind of tied to *** bed for *** long period of time and help keep them healthy. So there's *** benefit directly to the ground. That's 3 of them. Uh, they're all interesting, uh, and you know I'm one of many subjects, and it takes years to get enough subjects to go through the space station to be able to generate enough data to draw some conclusions and so that's why research up there takes *** long time, uh, but the, the value is clear. Uh, just very briefly, there's some medications on Earth that work well with *** certain age group, but the same medication doesn't work so well with another, so it's *** capillary flow experiment to try to understand how that medication is flowing through our bodies and maybe there's something we can figure out as to why those things are, and we're trying to figure that out and that's, that's very beneficial obviously to mankind and may benefit some of our families one day. And I, I just want to highlight some uh other science that's going on up there because we have an amazing person, Don Pettit, who's up on the space station getting ready to come home and, uh, every day he's up to something and just trying to highlight what microgravity does and how it is as well as amazing photography which I'm sure *** lot of you have probably seen out there and the fact that. He can take *** picture of *** red sprite or *** blue jet and have *** picture from the space station looking down on *** lightning cloud is just incredible and it enlightens all of us into what is actually going on in the universe and that's just simply because he's curious and that is something that's actually like I said we're sharing and we're showing off to everybody like wow, you know. We think we know what's going on, but we really don't. And if you just open your eyes and make some observations like Don does every morning at 4 a.m., uh, we'd learn *** whole lot. Don's, it's ***, it's *** great place. Don's taking potatoes he's growing and the nitrogen produced in the roots of the potatoes to nourish the peanuts that he's growing. I mean, it's pretty special. He's *** special guy. He's awesome. Our next question on our phone bridge is from Robert Pearlman. Hi, for Butch and Sonny, you're now the first astronauts to fly on both Starliner and Dragon, admittedly one on the way up and one on the way down. Was there anything about either spacecraft that you found you like more about the other stood out as *** feature, especially in terms of crew amenities? More Velcro on SpaceX on dragon. That's *** crew amenity. That's *** crew amenity which we talked about that. That's why, yeah, um, you know, they're both unique and they both have their purpose and made to do the same thing, but I, I think what's really cool is, you know, give *** problem to do for two different people and see how they solve it. Um, Starliner is *** really awesome spacecraft like Butch had mentioned with the integration of manual control as well as automation as well as its vision systems. uh, Dragon is *** very comfortable spacecraft that tells you what it's doing, which is very nice versus having to interpret displays as we have done throughout the space programs with, uh, you know, former programs including. Um, shuttle. So it's, they're both different. They're both unique. They both have their place in history. Um, very honored to be, have had that opportunity to see both of them up close and personal and, and, and ride them both, um. I don't know if I have *** preference honestly they're both great for different reasons. Our next question on the phone bridge is from David Curly. Thank you very much. Uh, but you mentioned lessons learned. Sonny, you mentioned earlier about the um the ability of the Starliner. When you meet with Boeing, what is the overarching message you'll deliver to the company? Now we don't have enough time to go and all that, um. If, if you don't, if you, if you understand that the spacecraft that we have now, we have Dragon, we have Orion, and we have Starliner, uh, in my opinion, Starliner has the most capability when you think about its ability to maneuver automatically. You think about it. Ability to move her manually in all phases of flight and then we have *** mode, if those modes have failure modes, we have *** backup mode where we can go directly from controllers to the reaction control system jets and maneuver the spacecraft. Um, there's no spacecraft that has all of this capability. I mean, I jokingly said *** couple of times before we launched that I could literally do *** barrel roll over the top of the space station. I would never do that, but you can in *** spacecraft. It is very, very capable. If we can figure out *** couple of very important primary issues with the thrusters and the helium system, um, Starliner is ready to go. We have to do some tests. We have to do some integrated tests. We have to. Bring it all together, uh, in ***, in ***, in *** process of qualification that is not gonna happen overnight but it has to take place and Starliner will be right in line with the number of missions that the dragon and, uh, um, affect what it is designed to do. That's ferry crews to and from the International Space Station and cargo, and I think that very quickly we can get on that track and that is part of the discussions that we'll have. Our next question is from Carolyn with Fortune magazine. Hello, thank you, uh, and welcome home. Um, can you share maybe any special times or conversations you've had just with family or friends, uh, since you've been home? conversations you've had with family and friends since you've been home since we've been home. Uh, well, for me it's making plans. My family had been making plans for while I was gone because we thought we were only going to be gone for about, you know, 1 week and *** half, 2 weeks or something, and so there was definitely plans throughout the summer. There's plans throughout the fall. Um, we, you know, personally we have *** house up in, in New England and, uh, my husband's, uh, been talking about when we're gonna get up there and do *** lot of fun stuff up there, and I think that's probably. Appropriate when it gets hot and humid here in the summer. I take *** little reprieve up there. So those are mostly the conversations about just like what's next? What's next on the list? What else do you want to do, you know, where else in the world would you like to go see because, you know, when you come back from space it's really hard to sit where you just are because there were so many amazing places that you saw, you know, like Patagonia, for example, for me it was like there's ***, there's *** bigger bucket list that I had when I left, which is. Unfortunate for my family, but we're all going to, we're fortunate for my family. We're all going to be taking some trips. So I think that's, that's mostly the conversations about just being home and enjoying each other's company and going and seeing new things. Yeah, I think when you've had this period of recuperation and getting back in the swing of life on Earth, it's pretty close as far as the people that you interact with your family, folks at church. So I think my message, at least in the short term here, has been Thank you for the support of us. Thank you for the support of my family, but then it goes beyond that, uh, to my home state of Tennessee. There's an immense amount of support by my family there and friends there and the whole state as *** matter of fact. Tennessee is *** wonderful state. Put in my pitch for Tennessee, uh, but getting up there eventually and, and relaying the same thank you to them and to, like I said, to *** nation that, uh, that cares, the nation that prayed and this opportunity right now to say thank you to our nation, our wonderful nation. Our next question on the phone bridge comes from Yarish. Go ahead. Welcome everyone. My question to Sunni is that Indian Space Research Organization ISRO chief has said that India wishes to utilize your expertise in space exploration. So is there any scope of hope that we can see you working or collaborating with Israel that is Indian Space Research Oration in the future? And the second part of this question is while being in ISS and seeing India from space, is there any moment you would like to share? How does India look from space, Tony? The first missed opportunity the 2nd 1. Yeah, so the Yeah, yeah, let me address the second question real quickly. Um, India is amazing. Every time we went over the Himalayas, and I'll tell you, but got some incredible pictures of the Himalayas, just amazing, and you can see, um, like I've described it before, just like this ripple that happened obviously when the plates collided and then as it it flows down into India, it's many, many colors, um, I think when you come. From the east going into like Gujarat and Mumbai, the fishing fleet that's off the coast there gives you *** little bit of *** beacon that here we come. And then all throughout India, I think the impression I had was it was just like this network of lights, uh, from the bigger cities going down through the smaller cities, just incredible to look at at night as well as during the day highlighted of course by the Himalayas, which is just incredible, uh, as *** forefront going down into India. Um, I hope, and I, I think for sure I'm going to be going back to my father's home country and visiting with people and, uh, getting excited about, uh, the first, uh, or not the first, but the Indian astronauts who who's going up on the Axio mission coming up, um, pretty awesome. They'll uh have *** uh *** hometown hero there of their own that will be able to talk about how wonderful the International Space Station is from his pers. but I hope I can meet up at some point in time and we can share our experiences with as many people in India as possible because it's *** great country, another wonderful democracy that's trying to put its foot in the space uh countries, and we would love to be part of that and and help them along. Do you plan to take your crew members on that trip with? Absolutely. You might stick out *** little bit, but that's OK. We'll we'll get you all primed with some spicy food. We'll be good. OK, we have time for one final question on the phone bridge from Jim Siegel. Everybody Jim Siegel here from Florida Media now. Thank you for taking my question. Butch and Sonny, you missed *** couple of holidays while you were back up at the International Space Station at Christmas and Thanksgiving. I wondered whether you have done or are planning to do anything special with your family and friends for those holidays. Thank you. I don't think we missed them. I think we celebrated every single one. We actually had *** *** reindeer that we built and uh rode like *** bull. I don't know if you saw those pictures, but we celebrated in style, trust me. Oh yeah, and Nick was great because he, he came up anticipating that we were all going to obviously be there for those holidays. So he was like Santa Claus had his little bag of goodies for all of us and it was pretty awesome to uh to have the holidays up there. It's pretty unique and not many of us get to do that, so it was it was *** lot of fun. But this holiday season will be special for sure yeah. All right, that's all the time we have for today. Thank you for joining in on our news conference today and thank you for your continued interest in NASA's SpaceX Crew 9 mission. We'll see you next time.