NASA astronauts speak out for the first time following unexpected 9-month mission to space

NASA ’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore spoke to reporters for the first time since their return to Earth on March 18 .

They addressed questions about the Boeing Starliner saga during a NASA news conference.

Williams and Wilmore said they were honored and humbled by the amount of interest in their journey.

President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have repeatedly taken credit for expediting their return.

NASA officials have consistently denied that Williams and Wilmore were ever “stranded” “We always had a lifeboat, a way for them to come home,” said Steve Stich , who heads NASA ’s Commercial Crew Program , on March 18 .

The space agency mapped out the path home last summer — well before Musk or Trump began talking about it.

NASA had said in December it was expecting to delay Crew-9 ’s return because of SpaceX.

The company was tracking some hangups preparing a new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule for Crew-10 .

NASA and SpaceX later opted to use a different capsule for the crew-10 mission.