Standards 'Vital' to Navy, NASA Mission, Butch Wilmore Says
In early 2025, NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Suni Williams — both retired Navy captains — were nearing nine months aboard the International Space Station, where they had been stranded since June 2024. The two were rescued and returned to Earth March 18, after spending 286 days in space.
During a visit to the Pentagon yesterday, Wilmore spoke with service members about service, space, leadership and the importance of standards.
Wilmore joined the Navy after finishing college in 1986. He attended flight school and served as a pilot in tactical jets, including the A-7E Corsair II and the F/A-18 Hornet. He served in Operations Desert Storm, Desert Shield and Southern Watch and has logged over 8,000 flight hours and 663 carrier landings. He's a graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, and as a test pilot, he participated in developing the T-45 Goshawk trainer aircraft.
It wasn't until 2000, Wilmore said, that he was accepted into NASA's astronaut program.
"I didn't join the Navy to become an astronaut," he said. "I joined the Navy to serve my country. And how I thought I would do it, I had a jet in my mind's eye."
After completing a couple of master's degrees and flight school, he said he was looking for more.
"I'm like, 'Hey, you can't fly any higher and faster than the space shuttle — let's try that,'" he said. "So again, the Lord gave me that desire in my heart as well."
Preparation for becoming an astronaut, he said, came from everything he'd done previously as a Navy pilot.
"Think about putting on a one-man space capsule and going out into the vacuum of space, and the responsibility required for that," he said. "This is something obviously that I did with NASA, but you don't get prepared for this type of thing to be able to do it well and take on that responsibility without the foundation that takes place before you get there, and that was, for me, ... in our United States military."
Commitment, preparation and resilience, Wilmore said, are things he brought to the NASA job, things he learned in the Navy.
The jobs of service members and of astronauts are not really jobs at all, he said. They are commitments.
"This is something that is a way of life, and you've got to be all in," he said. "Because if you're not, you're not going to be able to do this job to the level that is required. And that commitment breeds the desire to be prepared. I mean, absolutely 100% prepared."
The Navy veteran spoke about the "great responsibility" every service member has, as well as the resiliency required to do their jobs.
"Resiliency is something that is learned," he said. "It is a trait that comes with rigor: blood, sweat and tears. That's where resiliency is born, and it becomes toughness and focus and fairness and all that rolled into fortitude, that term ... that we have to have in our military."
Wilmore added that the biggest factor affecting resilience is leadership — something he also learned in the Navy.
"Leadership is required; absolute leadership makes or breaks this resiliency that has its foundation as commitment, preparation and responsibility."
He described a successful leader as resilient, morally and ethically sound, meek, humble, timely, adaptable, sacrificial and unselfish.
"And realizes their words have power," he said. "You've got to realize that, and you've got to wield that sword effectively and with compassion and with care. And of course, you've got to be disciplined and determined. You have to be, especially for what you guys are responsible for every single day. I've lived it, I've seen it, I've reaped the benefits of great leaders instilling these characteristics in me, and for that, I am greatly thankful."
Shortly after taking the helm of the Pentagon last year, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth outlined plans to revive the warrior ethos, rebuild the U.S. military and reestablish deterrence with a focus on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards and readiness.
Wilmore said success, both in the Navy as a pilot and at NASA as an astronaut, depends deeply on those very things the secretary is focused on now.
"They are vital," he said, adding that success in particular is not possible without standards. "I'm so grateful that our military is doing what it's doing right now, because these standards are there for a reason."
Wilmore said performance standards exist for the safety and benefit of the entire military, noting that "most of them are written in blood."
He said his faith is another important element of his own success in both the Navy and NASA.
When the Starliner spacecraft that took Wilmore and Williams into space in 2024 lost several of its thrusters — limiting maneuvering abilities — he knew he and his teammate would be stranded in space for some time. He said it was his faith that kept him pressing on.
He described himself, both in maneuvering the Starline craft when it lost thrusters, and later when he was stranded on the space station, as being "content." He cited a biblical story featuring the Apostle Paul, who was beaten, stoned and left for dead, as a way to illustrate this.
"What does [Paul] say? He says, 'I am content,'" Wilmore said. "In the moment, this moment [in the spacecraft], and others I've had in the past, if I am trying to be what the Lord would have me be — in line, in step with where he would have me be — if I'm anything other than content, I'm not trusting. Paul was content ... he knows he's right where the Lord would have him be, even amongst the trials he's undergoing. And that's contentment. And that's what I try to line my beliefs up, and my understanding with; and that's where I was. That's why I was content."
Wilmore is a veteran of three space flights and has logged 464 days in space, along with over 31 hours during five spacewalks.
