Nobody Had Ever Lost Control of a Spacecraft | Butch Wilmore

Butch Wilmore was flying a Boeing Starliner 300 meters from the space station when the fourth of eight aft thrusters failed, and no crewed spacecraft in history had ever lost that much control. He tells Jack Graham and Jeremiah Johnston, PhD what went through his mind, which was not a prayer for rescue but a calculation: dock or we may not get home. Eight days became 284. What he built his answer on, then and since, is Philippians 4, a Saturday-morning simulator nobody made him book, and a conviction that the aurora is a visible picture of God's protection of this planet.

Books:

• Stuck in Space: An Astronaut's Hope Through the Unexpected, Butch Wilmore, The Heirloom Press, 2026
• Life's Emergency Procedures: A Pocket Checklist for Life, with Craig "Z" Ziemba
• A devotional on the heavens, in manuscript. Wilmore says he used Psalm 8:3-4 in it two days before this recording.

Scripture cited on air:

• 2 Timothy 1:13, the show's name
• John 3:27, Wilmore's stated favorite
• Psalm 8:3-4, read aloud from Johnston's Bible
• Psalm 19:1, Romans 1, Genesis 1:1, Colossians 1, Hebrews 1
• 2 Corinthians 11 and Philippians 4, on contentment
• Isaiah 45:18, 2 Peter 3
• Romans 14:1, the Disputable Matter frame

People and places referenced:

• Suni Williams, his Starliner crewmate, also a Navy test pilot
• Providence Baptist Church, Pasadena, Texas, where he has been an elder 15 years
• Deanna Wilmore, his wife
• James Van Allen and Explorer 1
• Stan Barrett, stunt driver, a Graham acquaintance
• George Beverly Shea, "The Wonder of It All"

Links:

• butchwilmore.com
• x.com/butch_wilmore
• instagram.com/astro_butch