Barry Wilmore

Barry Eugene "Butch" Wilmore (born December 29, 1962) is an American retired NASA astronaut and United States Navy test pilot. He is a veteran of three spaceflights, the first of which was an 11-day Space Shuttle mission in November 2009, to the International Space Station. In total, he spent a total of 464 days off Earth and 32 hours outside of a spacecraft. Wilmore was designated as pilot with five other crew members on Space Shuttle Atlantis for the mission STS-129. He served as part of Expedition 41/42 to the International Space Station, and on June 5, 2024, returned to the ISS on the Boeing Crew Flight Test, the first crewed mission of the Boeing Starliner. On March 18, 2025, he returned to Earth on the SpaceX Dragon capsule with the other crew members of Crew-9. The crew that replaced the Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts aboard the ISS arrived on March 16.

Prior to being selected as a NASA astronaut in July 2000, Wilmore was an experienced Navy test pilot. He also participated in the development of the T-45 Goshawk jet trainer.

On March 3, 2026, Wilmore announced his intent to run in the 2026 Tennessee gubernatorial election as a Republican.

Wilmore was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and raised in Mount Juliet by his mother Faye and father Eugene. Wilmore has one sibling, a brother who resides in Franklin, Tennessee. He is married to Deanna Wilmore (née Newport) of Helenwood, Tennessee, they have two daughters. Wilmore currently lives in Houston, Texas, with his family.

Wilmore self-identifies as a Christian. During a press conference on March 31, 2025, he said that it was vital for him to continuously connect with his faith and church family, and this is why, while in orbit, he continued to regularly attend remote Sunday services streamed from Providence Baptist Church in Pasadena, Texas and Grace Baptist Church in Mount Juliet. He serves as an elder at Providence Baptist. In July 2025, Wilmore spoke at the “Astronaut Encounter” event held at the Ark Encounter in Kentucky and organized by the creationist ministry Answers in Genesis. During the event he stated that the Bible is “absolutely factual” in matters relating to science and criticized scientific theories involving deep time.

Wilmore graduated from Mount Juliet High School in Mount Juliet, Tennessee. Wilmore has received a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science degree from Tennessee Tech in electrical engineering, and a Master of Science in Aviation Systems from the University of Tennessee. Wilmore was a member, letterman, and team captain of the Tennessee Technological University football team.

Wilmore has over 8,000 hours of flight time and 663 carrier landings, all in tactical jet aircraft, and is a graduate of the United States Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS).

During Wilmore's tenure as a fleet Naval officer and pilot, Wilmore completed four operational deployments, flying the A-7E and F/A-18 aircraft from the decks of the aircraft carriers USS Forrestal (CV-59), USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), USS Enterprise (CVN-65) and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). He has flown missions in support of Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Southern Watch over the skies of Iraq, as well as missions over Bosnia in support of United States and NATO interests. Wilmore successfully completed 21 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm while operating from USS John F. Kennedy. Wilmore's most recent operational deployment was aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower with the "Blue Blasters" of Strike Fighter Squadron 34 (VFA-34), an F/A-18 squadron based at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia.