Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams and two different astronauts descend within the Crew Dragon spacecraft to their splashdown, following their return to earth from the Worldwide Area Station off the coast of Florida, U.S. March 18, 2025 in a nonetheless picture from video.
NASA TV | By way of Reuters
The 2 U.S. astronauts who had been on the Worldwide Area Station for 9 months after their defective Boeing Starliner capsule returned with out them are lastly again on Earth.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — in addition to fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov — efficiently splashed down in a SpaceX Dragon capsule off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, at 5:57 p.m. ET.
Splash downs, or water landings, are easier for returning to Earth.
Hague mentioned he noticed a “capsule stuffed with grins, ear to ear.” The astronauts will now head to NASA’s Johnson Area Middle in Houston for a number of days of routine well being checks earlier than they will go dwelling.
The Crew Dragon capsule containing Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams and two different astronauts floats after their splashdown following their return to earth from the Worldwide Area Station off the coast of Florida, U.S. March 18, 2025 in a nonetheless picture from video.
NASA TV | By way of Reuters
Wilmore and Williams left Earth in June on a take a look at flight that was initially meant to final about 9 days.
However their keep was prolonged after thrusters on Boeing’s Starliner capsule “Calypso” failed throughout docking, elevating considerations concerning the ship’s capability to hold them dwelling. NASA in the end despatched the capsule again empty after it was docked for about three months on the area station, saying it wished to “additional perceive the foundation causes” of the spacecraft’s points.
NASA additionally introduced that Wilmore and Williams, who’re each veteran astronauts and retired Navy take a look at pilots, would return on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft as an alternative. The company adjusted its rotation of astronauts because of this, eradicating two folks from SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission — which is returning to Earth this week — to make room for Wilmore and Williams.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, two veteran NASA astronauts who’ve been caught on the Worldwide Area Station for 9 months, wave on the hatch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule earlier than closing the hatch in preparation for undocking from the ISS to start their return to Earth March 17, 2025 on this nonetheless picture taken from video.
Nasa | By way of Reuters
That capsule carrying the 2 folks on Crew-9 arrived on the ISS again in September. Crews rotate on the ISS, which signifies that every group of astronauts works till the following arrives on the area station, when a ceremonial “handover” happens.
NASA had initially deliberate for SpaceX’s Crew-10 mission — which wanted to reach earlier than the Crew-9 members might come again down — to launch in February, but it surely was delayed by a few month.
The rocket carrying the 4 new crew members launched on Friday night, and its capsule docked on the area station about 29 hours later.
The Starliner crew flight take a look at was speculated to test a closing field for Boeing and ship a key asset for NASA. The company hoped to meet its dream of getting two competing corporations — Boeing and Elon Musk‘s SpaceX — flying alternating missions to the ISS.
As an alternative, it is unclear what Boeing’s future crewed area plans are. The corporate has misplaced greater than $2 billion on its Starliner spacecraft.
“Boeing all the way in which as much as their new CEO Kelly [Ortberg] has been dedicated to Starliner,” Steve Stich, supervisor of NASA’s Industrial Crew Program, mentioned in a press briefing Tuesday night. “I can see that in the way in which they’re approaching the answer to their issues. … I see them being very dedicated.”
NASA officers within the briefing reiterated that Starliner must bear extra testing and left the choice open that its subsequent flight might be uncrewed.
Wilmore and Williams’ journey turned entangled in politics as soon as President Donald Trump took workplace. Trump and Musk, who has change into a detailed advisor to the president, urged a faster Crew-10 launch and mentioned with out proof that the 2 astronauts have been “stranded” on the area station and that the Biden administration had saved them up there for political causes. NASA had delayed the Crew-10 launch in December to permit extra time to course of a brand new Dragon capsule, however determined to make use of a reusable capsule to chop down on wait time.
NASA’s plans for returning the 2 astronauts have remained constant because the company introduced them in August.
The Crew Dragon capsule containing Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams and two different astronauts descends by parachute earlier than their splashdown, following their return to earth from the Worldwide Area Station off the coast of Florida, U.S. March 18, 2025 in a nonetheless picture from video.
NASA TV | By way of Reuters
Throughout their prolonged keep, Wilmore and Williams turned a part of a standard rotation, conducting scientific experiments and routine upkeep as another astronaut on rotation on the ISS would. Williams additionally carried out a spacewalk.
Williams has mentioned repeatedly that the pair does not really feel “deserted” on the ISS, however that she was trying ahead to returning dwelling to see her household and her two canines.
“It has been a curler coaster for them, in all probability just a little bit extra so than for us,” she advised reporters earlier this month.
