After nine long months of waiting, TikToker Daryn Wilmore finally got to say something she’s dreamed of for the better part of a year: Her father, NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore, is no longer stuck in space.
“Hi, everyone. Welcome to the very final installment of ‘My Dad is Stuck in Space,’ because he’s not anymore,” Daryn Wilmore said in a TikTok video posted Wednesday.
What was planned to be a one week stay on the International Space Station turned into more than nine months after Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams’ Boeing Starliner spacecraft experienced technical issues. The duo splashed down off Florida around 5:57 p.m. ET on Tuesday after spending 286 days on the orbiting station.
Sporting a blue Starliner T-shirt, Daryn Wilmore shared her excitement about how she plans to celebrate her long-awaited reunion with her father.
“We’re not having a party for him,” Daryn Wilmore said. “We might want to go to my uncle’s house. ... We might just have a little get-together with a few close friends, but no big party or anything. I’m making him his favorite dessert, which is pecan pie.”
“I actually have a list that’s all his favorite things and things that we used to do together, to hopefully do them these next few days that he’s here before I go back to school, or just in the coming months that he’s back, just to do what we have loved doing and make up for some lost time,” she added.
Now that her father is back on the Earth’s surface, Daryn Wilmore shared what his next steps will be as his body readjusts.
“He’s going to spend the next few days going in, tests, lots of medical stuff, because they’re still technically part of the experiment of human spaceflight, and just get re-acclimated to gravity and the routine back here on Earth,” she said.
Daryn Wilmore ended her update with a cheeky pitch to filmmakers about her father’s latest adventure.
“Hollywood, I think a movie should happen. I think a movie should happen. If you want to call me, I have ideas,” she said. “‘Apollo 13,’ that’s a great movie. But do you know what could even be better? This movie right here.”
Daryn Wilmore did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
