NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at the International Space Station on June 6 but NASA considered the risk too great to return the astronauts home on the troubled Boeing Starliner. The crew’s next opportunity to return home will be in February aboard SpaceX capsule.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are finally back on Earth, nearly 9 months later than originally scheduled, splashing down in a different spacecraft than the one they launched in last June.
Wilmore, Suni Williams, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov landed off Florida’s Gulf coast in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule where NASA and SpaceX teams were waiting on boats to greet the astronaut crew.
Wilmore and Williams each added a fourth spacecraft to their resumes as their roundtrip home included not one but two private company’s spacecraft. They arrived in June on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft during the first test flight to the International Space Station with crew, but after a series of issues with Boeing’s vehicle, NASA opted to undock it from the ISS and return it to Earth without its crew.
The Starliner spacecraft on NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s forward port as the International Space Station orbited 262 miles above Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.
(NASA)
BOEING STARLINER RETURNS HOME TO EARTH WITHOUT ASTRONAUTS, MARKING END OF TUMULTUOUS MISSION
To get the pair home, SpaceX and NASA launched the Crew-9 mission with one astronaut and one cosmonaut, leaving two seats open for Williams and Wilmore. Meanwhile, the Starliner crew became part of the ISS’s daily activities, conducting science in the orbiting laboratory and spacewalks outside the station.
“When we looked at the situation at the time, we had a Crew-9 launch in front of us,” NASA space station program manager Dana Weigel told reporters recently. “It made sense to take the opportunity to bring Crew-9 up with just two seats and have Butch and Suni fill in and do the rest of the long-duration mission.”
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore (far left), Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov and Suni Williams (far right) seen in the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule returning to Earth on March 18, 2025.
The Starliner test flight was slated to last about a week at the space station. Still, the logistical operation to bring Wilmore and Williams home on another vehicle extended their mission by nearly 10 months. SpaceX and Boeing have custom-fitted spacesuits and seats for their vehicles. NASA needed to launch those items to the ISS to use on the Dragon spacecraft’s return to Earth.
On Tuesday at 1 a.m., the Crew-9 SpaceX Dragon undocked from the ISS with its four crew. After less than a day of spaceflight, the Dragon re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, landing in the Gulf of America.
Despite 286 days in space, Williams and Wilmore don’t hold the record for days in orbit. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio holds the record with 371 days in space due to a coolant leak on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.
SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft after splashdown in the Gulf of America near Florida on March 18, 2025.