Stranded Astronauts Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore To Return To Earth On This Date

Last Updated:February 14, 2025, 17:02 IST

Williams and Wilmore, originally scheduled to return in late March or April, will now head home in mid-March aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, Endeavor.

Sunita Williams- Butch Wilmore Spacewalk: Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore stepped out of the Space Station (ISS) for a 5.5-hour spacewalk.

After living in space for over eight months, the two stranded astronauts, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilomore, are set to return from the Space Station (ISS) earlier in March than expected, NASA said.

Williams and Wilmore, originally scheduled to return in late March or April, will now head home in mid-March aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, Endeavor. The change in their return schedule stems from NASA’s decision to deploy Endeavor, a previously flown SpaceX capsule, for the upcoming Crew-10 mission.

Watch: Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore Take First Spacewalk Together After 8 Months

Both the astronauts launched aboard Boeing’s new Starliner capsule last June on what should have been a week-long test flight. However, technical issues with their spacecraft forced them to an extended stay at the ISS.

During their approach to the ISS, five of the 28 thrusters of the Starliner spacecraft carrying Williams and Wilmore failed, which extended their trip from days to months in space. Their extended delay fuelled health conditions as pictures showed Williams undergoing a drastic weight loss.

The US space agency said that the Starliner would return home without its crew after carrying out weeks of intensive testing and announced in August that it was tasking Elon Musk’s SpaceX with bringing the crew home.

Meanwhile, both the astronauts in an exclusive conversation with CNN, from space, said that the Crew-10 mission will launch from Earth on March 12 and dock with the Space Station (ISS) for their six-month-long mission.

The Crew-10 mission will bring a four-member team to the ISS- NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. Following a week-long handover, the two astronauts will board the Dragon spacecraft that brought Crew-10 to space to return to Earth. The Dragon spacecraft with two veteran astronauts will undock on March 19.

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“Teams will work to complete Dragon’s refurbishment and ready the spacecraft for flight, which includes trunk stack, propellant load, and transportation to SpaceX’s hangar at 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to be mated with the mission’s Falcon 9 rocket," NASA said in the statement.

“The plan is that Crew-10 will launch on March 12, do a turnover for a week and we will return on March 19," Willmore told CNN.

In January, Wilmore and Williams said their spirits were still high, adding that they had plenty of food and were enjoying their time on the space station.

While their protracted stay is notable, it has not yet surpassed Frank Rubio’s record-breaking 371 days aboard the ISS, which he completed in 2023 after the Russian spacecraft designated for his return developed a coolant leak.

(With inputs from agencies)

United States of America (USA)

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