By Michaela Gordoni
Astronaut Butch Wilmore learned how to give full control over to God in the hardest of environments — on a failing rocket in space.
On the “Jesus Calling Podcast,” Wilmore recalled a trying time on his third mission when he served in the role of commander.
“It’s humbling, honestly, when you consider all of that and you know that it’s your Lord that has put you there — and feeling unworthy, yet focused on the task,” he said. “And then off we go…The spacecraft performed perfectly that first day; it did not the second day.”
The rocket had eight thrusters, and they lost five of them. It was a scary situation.
“During that process, we lost the ability to fully control the spacecraft. I did pray a brief prayer: ‘Lord, help us.’ [That was] about all I had time for,” he said.
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“There were thoughts like, Well, now we might die, and thoughts of just drifting through space, because at the time, we were losing thrusters, [and] I’m assuming the other thrusters are going to get sick too. And I was okay with that, because I know my Lord and Savior,” he said.
They had just enough control to position the ship where it needed to be.
“The only reason I was [able] to do it was because of, again, God’s providence in positioning me to be the guy. I had had an immense amount of experience over the previous couple of decades, like no one else in the Astronaut Corps, in rendezvous and docking, going back to the shuttle era. I was the only astronaut in the Astronaut Corps at the time that had ever already manually controlled a spacecraft in space,” he said.
“That put me in a unique position,” he explained. “My thought was, We have to dock with the space station, because if we don’t connect and dock with the space station, I don’t know…I don’t think I’ll be able to control the spacecraft enough, sufficiently, to do a de-orbit burn.”
It was imperative that the spaceship dock. But even if they did dock, Willmore knew they probably wouldn’t be able to fly home in the same craft.
“That point culminated in me on the controls in space, with a spacecraft that was not controllable. But because of all that experience that the Lord had positioned me in, we were able to maintain control. Working together with the ground teams, eventually we were able to get enough thrusters back to where we could dock safely,” he said. “In all types of strenuous situations that we come through in life — to where realizing the Lord’s in control, He is sovereign, working providentially for His Glory and our ultimate good, if we believe.”
Because of the failed thrusters, Willmore and the other astronaut onboard, Suni Williams, had to stay in space for nearly 10 months instead of eight days as planned, BBC reported. They returned to Earth in March 2025.
“I completely understand God’s sovereignty,” Willmore told the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. “That He is in control of all things at all times. And I felt that.”
“I thought that very thing as we were losing those thrusters. The Lord’s got this, and if it means He takes me today, so be it.’ And that’s the way — even before we launched, my wife and I, our daughters, we understand that and we’re OK with that because, if the Lord doesn’t return first, we’re all going to go one day,” he said.
Wilmore’s remarkable testimony is a reminder that even in life’s most difficult moments, faith can provide the courage you need get through it.
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