Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore to Return to Earth After Being Stranded for 9 Months
Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorunov are also boarding back.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore to Return to Earth After Being Stranded for 9 Months latest news: NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, after being stuck in space at the International Space Station (ISS) for nine months, are now all set to return to Earth. According to ANI reports, the astronauts are set to undock from the ISS on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and are scheduled to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico at 3:30 a.m. on Thursday. It will take them 17 hours to return to Earth.
Along with the two astronauts, Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorunov are also boarding back. The two astronauts arrived ISS in September 2024 as part of the Crew-9 mission.
According to ANI, NASA will provide live coverage of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 return to Earth from the ISS.
NASA’s statement reads, “NASA will provide live coverage of the agency's SpaceX Crew-9 return to Earth from the International Space Station, beginning with Dragon spacecraft hatch closure preparations at 10:45 p.m. EDT Monday, March 17."
"NASA and SpaceX met on Sunday to assess weather and splashdown conditions off Florida's coast for the return of the agency's Crew-9 mission from the International Space Station. Mission managers are targeting an earlier Crew-9 return opportunity based on favorable conditions forecasted for the evening of Tuesday, March 18," it added.
NASA stated that the revised return schedule allows space station crew members to complete handover duties while ensuring flexibility ahead of worsening weather conditions later in the week.
Mission managers will monitor weather conditions, as Dragon’s undocking depends on factors like spacecraft readiness, recovery team preparedness, and sea conditions. NASA and SpaceX will confirm the exact splashdown location closer to the Crew-9 return.
On Friday, SpaceX and NASA launched a mission to bring back Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stranded on the ISS for nine months. The Crew-10 mission lifted off at 7:03 a.m. ET aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, on Sunday, announced that the Dragon spacecraft, carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, successfully docked with the ISS.
The launch followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for Elon Musk to expedite their rescue.
NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stranded on the ISS since June 5, 2024, due to technical issues with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which experienced helium leaks and thruster malfunctions. Originally planned as an eight-day mission, their stay was extended indefinitely for safety reasons.
During their nine-month stay, they contributed to ISS operations and research, with Williams even assuming command in September 2024. Now, they are set to return aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon as part of the Crew-9 mission, with a planned splashdown off the Florida coast.
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