The Crew Dragon capsule containing Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams and two other astronauts descends by parachute before their splashdown, following their return to earth from the International Space Station off the coast of Florida, U.S. March 18, 2025 in a still image from video.
NASA TV | Via Reuters
The two U.S. astronauts who had been at the International Space Station for nine months after their faulty Boeing Starliner capsule returned without them are finally back on Earth.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — as well as fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov — successfully splashed down off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, at 5:57 p.m. ET.
Splash downs, or water landings, are simpler for returning to Earth.
Hague said he saw a “capsule full of grins, ear to ear.” The astronauts will now head to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for several days of routine health checks before they can go home.
Wilmore and Williams left Earth in June on a test flight that was originally intended to last about nine days.
The Crew Dragon capsule containing Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams and two other astronauts floats after their splashdown following their return to earth from the International Space Station off the coast of Florida, U.S. March 18, 2025 in a still image from video.
NASA TV | Via Reuters
But their stay was extended after thrusters on Boeing’s Starliner capsule “Calypso” failed during docking, raising concerns about the ship’s ability to carry them home. NASA ultimately sent the capsule back empty after it was docked for about three months at the space station, saying it wanted to “further understand the root causes” of the spacecraft’s issues.
NASA also announced that Wilmore and Williams, who are both veteran astronauts and retired Navy test pilots, would return on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft instead. The agency adjusted its rotation of astronauts as a result, removing two people from SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission — which is returning to Earth this week — to make room for Wilmore and Williams.
That capsule carrying the two people on Crew-9 arrived at the ISS back in September. Crews rotate on the ISS, which means that each group of astronauts works until the next arrives at the space station, when a ceremonial “handover” occurs.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, two veteran NASA astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station for nine months, wave at the hatch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule before closing the hatch in preparation for undocking from the ISS to begin their return to Earth March 17, 2025 in this still image taken from video.
Nasa | Via Reuters
NASA had originally planned for SpaceX’s Crew-10 mission — which needed to arrive before the Crew-9 members could come back down — to launch in February, but it was delayed by about a month.
The rocket carrying the four new crew members launched on Friday evening, and…
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