NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore are scheduled to return to Earth on March 16 after an unexpected nine-month extension of their original 10-day mission. The duo, who have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) due to technical issues with their spacecraft, will depart aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule next week, coinciding with the arrival of a relief crew.
Williams and Wilmore were launched aboard NASA’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5, 2024, as part of a crewed flight test. However, persistent malfunctions with the capsule forced NASA to delay their return indefinitely. Starliner successfully made an uncrewed return in September 2024, but the astronauts remained on the ISS.
In response, NASA sent astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the ISS aboard SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, reserving two seats for Williams and Wilmore. Originally slated to return in February, all four astronauts will now journey back together on March 16.
During a press briefing, NASA’s ISS program manager, Dana Weigel, explained that since Crew-9 launched with only two crew members, the agency decided to integrate Williams and Wilmore into an extended mission.
Meanwhile, NASA’s Crew-10 mission is set for launch on March 12 from Kennedy Space Center. The mission will transport astronauts Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi, and Kirill Peskov to the ISS. Due to construction delays, they will travel aboard the Endurance capsule instead of the originally planned new Crew Dragon spacecraft.
