Four astronauts from NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, including Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, are set to return to Earth on Tuesday after spending nine unexpected months on the International Space Station. NASA
After spending over nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), two U.S. astronauts will finally return to Earth on Tuesday evening, NASA confirmed.
Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams will return to Earth along with another American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut. They will travel back aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which arrived at the ISS on Sunday. Their journey back had been delayed after the spacecraft they were supposed to return on, Boeing's Starliner, ran into issues with its propulsion system.
Wilmore and Williams were initially scheduled for a short trip back to Earth in June. However, the malfunction with the Starliner meant they could not leave the station, keeping them in space for much longer than expected. They have been living and working on the ISS, far beyond the typical six-month stay astronauts usually have.
NASA announced that the astronauts’ return will be earlier than expected, as the splashdown off the coast of Florida has been moved to Tuesday at around 5:57 p.m. local time (21:57 GMT). The change was made because of favorable weather conditions. Originally, the return was set for Wednesday, but the agency decided to act earlier to avoid worse weather later in the week.
The return journey of Wilmore and Williams will be part of the SpaceX Crew-10 mission, which will also bring back NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The event will be streamed live starting Monday evening, when preparations to close the capsule hatch begin.
For Wilmore and Williams, this will mark the end of a long and unexpected ordeal. What was supposed to be a brief mission of just a few days stretched into nearly nine months, much longer than the usual six-month assignment aboard the ISS. Their extended stay, although challenging, is still far shorter than the U.S. space record of 371 days, set by astronaut Frank Rubio in 2023. It’s also much shorter than the world record of 437 continuous days held by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov aboard the Mir space station.
During their time on the ISS, Wilmore and Williams had to adjust to the unexpected duration of their stay. They did not initially pack enough clothing or personal care items, and additional supplies had to be sent up to them. The astronauts also missed their families, which made their prolonged stay all the more difficult.
Despite these challenges, the mission has captured the attention and sympathy of many people. The two astronauts have been away from Earth for much longer than originally planned, and their safe return will be a much-awaited event.
