New York, March 17 – NASA has confirmed that two American astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for nine months, will return to Earth on Tuesday evening.
Wilmore and Williams will travel back alongside another American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, which arrived at the ISS on Sunday morning.
According to NASA, their return is scheduled for Tuesday at 5:57 PM local time off the coast of Florida (March 19 at 3:30 AM IST). The return was initially planned for Wednesday but was moved earlier to accommodate ISS crew activities and account for potential bad weather later in the week.
Wilmore and Williams had originally traveled to the ISS in June 2023 as part of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft’s first crewed test flight. However, technical malfunctions rendered the spacecraft unsuitable for a safe return, prolonging their stay aboard the ISS far beyond the intended mission duration.
NASA has announced that it will livestream the Crew-9 team's return from the ISS. The broadcast will begin at 10:45 PM EDT on March 17, corresponding to 8:30 AM IST on March 18.
Along with Wilmore and Williams, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov will also return aboard the Dragon capsule.
While the extended stay on the ISS was unexpected, it did not surpass previous records. American astronaut Frank Rubio holds the longest continuous stay record for a U.S. astronaut at 371 days, while Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov set the world record with 437 days aboard the Mir space station.
The mission drew significant attention due to the astronauts’ prolonged separation from their families. Given the extended stay, NASA had to send additional clothing and personal care supplies, as the astronauts had not initially packed for such a long mission.
