NASA Astronauts Sunita Williams & Butch Wilmore Begin Return To Earth After Nine Months On ISS

NASA astronauts Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore, along with two other crew members, have undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and are likely to splash down on Earth on Tuesday evening.

The return journey is taking place aboard SpaceX Crew-9’s Dragon Freedom capsule, with NASA providing live coverage of the event.

Accompanying Williams and Wilmore on the trip back to Earth are SpaceX astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov.

Williams and Wilmore originally arrived at the ISS on 5 June aboard a Boeing Starliner spacecraft.

However, due to technical issues, NASA sent the spacecraft back to Earth without a crew in September 2024, allowing other missions to use the docking port.

After an extended stay of nine months, Williams and Wilmore are finally returning aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.

Taking to X, NASA confirmed the departure, posting, “They’re on their way! #Crew9 undocked from the @Space_Station at 1:05AM ET (0505 UTC). Reentry and splashdown coverage begins on X, YouTube, and NASA+ at 4:45PM ET (2145 UTC) this evening.”

The four astronauts embarked on a 17-hour journey back to Earth, with NASA broadcasting the process live.

As they prepared to depart, Hague, Williams, Wilmore, and Gorbunov packed up and sealed the hatches before leaving the ISS.

Reflecting on his time aboard the space station, Nick Hague remarked, “It’s been a privilege to call the Space Station home, to play my part in its 25-year legacy of doing research for humanity, and to work with colleagues, now friends, from around the globe. My spaceflight career, like most, is full of the unexpected.”

Live Coverage & Weather Monitoring By NASA

In a statement, NASA asserted, “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 PM EDT Monday, 17 March.”

“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 favourable conditions forecasted for the evening of Tuesday, 18 March,” it further added.

NASA stated that the revised return target ensures the space station crew has sufficient time for handover duties while maintaining operational flexibility ahead of worsening weather conditions later in the week.

Mission managers will keep monitoring weather conditions, as Dragon’s undocking depends on multiple factors, including spacecraft and recovery team readiness, weather, and sea conditions.

NASA and SpaceX will finalize the splashdown location closer to the scheduled landing.

SpaceX Continues Operations At ISS

Meanwhile, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced that another Dragon spacecraft had successfully docked with the ISS, carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

The return of Williams and Wilmore comes after NASA and SpaceX launched a mission on Friday to bring them back following a prolonged stay.

The mission, carried out by a Falcon 9 rocket, was part of the Crew-10 program.

Their return also follows political pressure, as US President Donald Trump had urged Elon Musk to expedite the process, criticizing the previous administration for delaying their rescue.

Williams and Wilmore had initially been scheduled to stay on the ISS for about a week, but technical issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft extended their mission.

The spacecraft was sent back to Earth uncrewed in September after NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and thruster issues as Starliner approached the ISS.

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