Steady in orbit

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, June 4th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: faith under extreme pressure.

Two years ago, astronaut Barry Wilmore began his last mission in space. The mission did not go as planned, culminating with an unexpected nine-month stay on the International Space Station before returning safely to earth.

BROWN: What spiritual disciplines sustain a believer in a high-risk technical environment?

WORLD’s Todd Vician has our story.

TODD VICIAN: A day into Boeing Starliner’s first manned flight, Barry Wilmore calmly reported a problem. The computer display was flashing as he and his fellow astronaut were conducting tests before docking with the International Space Station.

AUDIO: The white converged and then at 4.02, then inbound fly around and then destination A and B in the region. Not all flashing at the same time, different ones would flash at different times…

250 miles below the orbiting spacecraft, NASA engineers quickly began assessing the implications of Wilmore’s observations.

AUDIO: Just moments ago, we had confirmation from Mission Control, a second reaction control system maneuvering jet has now failed. Mission Control has told Butch Wilmore, the commander, to hold Starliner at 260 meters from the station…

Engineers in Houston began hot-firing thrusters to bring them online again, but Wilmore knew it was worse than it sounded. Five of the six thrusters used to maneuver the capsule as it approaches the space station had malfunctioned. Without a fix, they couldn’t dock. If they couldn’t dock….

WILMORE: There is not another option, because if we don't dock… I don't think we can do a de-orbit burn and get back to Earth. So we have to dock.

It took roughly 2 hours to assess the problem. Wilmore manually pointed the capsule to maintain its orbit and keep its navigation sensors tracking so they could return to auto control before docking.

WILMORE: The reason I was able to maintain control is because I had lived rendezvous and docking and orbital mechanics.

That means he’d studied how to maneuver two objects flying in close proximity. And he spent more time than required in the simulator, often going in on Saturday mornings at 6. 

Now, that training was paying off.

WILMORE: My control inputs, what I’m putting into the system, the thrusters, how that will affect the orbital mechanics, I’m thinking through all this in my mind.

Wilmore forged his calm-under-pressure-mentality before he lifted off on his first space mission. He spent 8 years as a Navy test pilot—routinely testing airplanes’ limits. On one flight in an FA-18, the jet began to stall when not enough air was moving over its wings.

WILMORE: Where it's departed normal flight, and it starts to fall back to Earth, and it will go kind of a falling leaf; left wing down, right wing down. Kind of like a leaf, kind of fluttering through the air.

Wilmore let his less-experienced co-pilot run the checklist while he monitored the altimeter.

WILMORE: And of course, the procedure is neutralize, stick full forward. That's the quick, and you just hold it. Because if you don’t, you’ll fall like a leaf all the way to the ground, which is not good.

As they approached the altitude where they would have to bail out, Wilmore took control of the stick.

WILMORE: So I grabbed it and I went through the procedures, and it didn't come out initially, but eventually did right before we hit 10,000 feet and recovered.

Wilmore also flew against Iraqi air defenses in Desert Storm. Each test flight and combat mission resulted in more confidence. 

It grew even more when he began to seriously study God’s word.

WILMORE: When it says fear not, it says, don't be anxious. It doesn't mean that I'm never anxious, it means that I know there's a path to not be anxious if I follow the path that He has outlined. And I believe it to the core of my being.

Wilmore is also quick to say he was able to stay focused on his mission—whether in space or in the cockpit—because he’s not distracted by life’s bigger questions, like what will happen when we die.

WILMORE: There is no price for me to pay. And that comfort, that contentment, in stressful situations I can block all, everything out and go forward with whatever the situation I'm dealing with, because if the Lord takes me, if to that level, I'm ready.

Before pilots perform their first solo flight, they spend hundreds of hours in books, flying with an instructor, and preparing for every “what if.” Wilmore has approached the Bible with the same discipline.

WILMORE: Just like when you're a student pilot, it's repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition. You learn it by going over it and going over it and going over it. It's the same thing with God's word.

The stakes were never greater for Wilmore than when he was in space, and he still remembers the charge he received as a new astronaut 26 years ago.

WILMORE: ‘Your task as an astronaut is to know everything and perform it well.’ You can’t know everything and perform it well, but that’s the goal, and it's the same thing in the life of a believer. Why would you accept being... an average Christian, when great is attainable, and God calls us to that?

Wilmore says astronauts have confidence, in part because they don’t just prepare until they can get it right. They prepare until they think they can’t get it wrong. 

But Wilmore’s confidence extends even beyond that, to trusting in God’s sovereignty no matter the emergency.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Todd Vician, in Houston, Texas.

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