The 16-year-old daughter of stranded Starliner astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore said she’s frustrated her dad has been stuck on the International Space Station since June — and blamed “negligence” and “a lot of politics.”
Daryn Wilmore took to TikTok to express how she longs to hug her father again and bemoan all the family moments he has missed during the orbital mishap — which SpaceX founder Elon Musk blames on the Biden administration’s reluctance to pull the trigger on a rescue.
“He’s missed out on a lot,” she said in the March 6 post. “It’s less the fact that he’s up there sometimes; it’s more the fact of why. There’s a lot of politics, there’s a lot of things that I’m not at liberty say in that I don’t know fully about. But there’s been issues, there’s been negligence.
“It’s just been issue after issue after issue,” the teen charged.
Musk said last year that he was ready to launch a SpaceX rocket to bring Barry “Butch” Wilmore and fellow castaway Sunita Williams home after their Boeing Starliner capsule malfunctioned — but that officials in the Biden administration put the brakes on the plan.
In a press conference from the space station this week, Wilmore said he agreed.
“I can only say that Mr. Musk, what he says, is absolutely factual,” he said. “I believe him.”
The “Lost in Space” saga began when the Crew Dragon team launched on June 5 for what was intended to be in space for just over a week — until their return craft was plagued by propulsion problems and propellant leaks that would require months of analysis.
NASA hoped to bring them home last month until another delay was reported.
Now they’re expected to come back to Earth later this month.
Although she’s frustrated her father hasn’t come home yet, Daryn Wilmore is not depressed over his space station dilemma.
She said her family gets to speak to the stranded space traveler almost daily and said he’s keeping busy.
“Recently we found out he will most likely be coming back in mid-March, which is so exciting, and I miss him so much, and I can only wait to hug his neck and see my sister graduate high school and see the show I’m in right now,” the teen said.
“But, fingers crossed, things could always change and especially with this whole thing. We’ve had so many changes,” she added.
“He’s just been bummed, but he’s fine. My dad has always been resilient.”
