Two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, are returning home after spending over nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will leave the ISS early Tuesday. What started as a brief test of the Boeing Starliner in June 2024 turned into an extended mission. Their return signifies the conclusion of an eventful journey.
Wilmore, 62, and Williams, 59, travelled briefly but experienced a propulsion failure with the Starliner spacecraft. NASA determined that it was unsafe for flight, so the craft returned without any crew on board. Instead, the former Navy pilots joined the Crew-9 mission. SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft arrived in September with two crew members, leaving space available for Wilmore and Williams.
A SpaceX capsule carrying a new crew has docked at the International Space Station 🛰️. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will now return home. They have been on the ISS for an unexpected nine month stint after the experimental spacecraft they arrived on had problems and… pic.twitter.com/RlKYdlDXcB
— BBC World Service (@bbcworldservice) March 17, 2025Sunday brought relief. Crew-10 docked at the ISS. Smiles and hugs greeted them. That cleared the way for Wilmore and Williams to go. They’ll ride back with Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov. After final hugs, they sealed the Dragon hatch at 11:05 p.m. Monday (0305 GMT Tuesday).
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Undocking’s set for 1:05 a.m. Tuesday (0505 GMT). If all goes well, parachutes will slow Dragon off Florida’s coast. A recovery ship will scoop them up. Their 9-month stay beats the usual six, but it isn’t a record. Still, this ISS astronaut’s return grabbed global eyes.
NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 mission successfully docked with the International Space Station after lifting off Friday evening.
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are now one step closer to returning home from the ISS. pic.twitter.com/rMCd2xKCGi
— ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive) March 17, 2025Resilience Shines, Trump Chimes In
Experts praise their grit. “Suni loves exercise,” said Rihana Bokhari of Baylor’s Space Medicine Center. Health risks? Manageable. But the surprise stretch tested them. “Imagine being stuck at work for nine months,” said psychologist Joseph Keebler. Trump, though, turned it political. He and Elon Musk claimed Biden forgot them NASA says that’s nonsense.
