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After spending well over nine months in space, NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams have successfully returned to Earth, concluding a historic 286-day stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS), a stay that was originally scheduled for just 8 days. Their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule landed in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, on March 18, 2025, marking the end of an extended mission that was originally planned to last just over a week.

 

Wilmore and Williams took to space June 5, 2024, aboard Boeing’s Starliner. The mission was supposed to be a short-duration test flight, aimed at demonstrating Starliner’s capabilities in ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS. However, propulsion system failures and docking complications led NASA to determine that Starliner was unfit for a crewed return trip.

With their original spacecraft rendered unusable for a safe return, the astronauts remained aboard the ISS while NASA and Boeing assessed their options. Eventually, NASA opted to send them back to Earth using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, but additional delays meant their return was pushed further into 2025. Earlier this year, in January, President Donald Trump publicly called on SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to expedite their return. SpaceX, in response, switched plans from using a new capsule to a previously flown one, which helped reduce the wait time by several weeks.

Despite the unforeseen extension, Wilmore and Williams made the most of their additional time in space. They quickly transitioned from test pilots to full-fledged ISS crew members, taking on vital responsibilities in conducting experiments, maintaining station equipment, and even performing spacewalks. Williams, who had previously served on the ISS, was appointed station commander three months into their stay, a role she held until earlier this month. She also set a record for the most spacewalking time by a female astronaut, accumulating 62 hours across nine spacewalks over her career. Throughout their extended mission, they completed 4,576 orbits around Earth and traveled a total of 121 million miles (195 million kilometers).

With the arrival of their relief crew — including NASA’s Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov — Wilmore and Williams were finally cleared for departure. To avoid potential weather disruptions, NASA opted to bring them back slightly ahead of schedule. Their Crew Dragon spacecraft undocked from the ISS yesterday, on March 18, beginning a 17-hour journey back to Earth. As the capsule descended through Earth’s atmosphere, parachutes deployed, slowing its speed before it splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico. Within an hour of landing, a SpaceX recovery team hoisted the capsule onto a waiting ship and assisted the astronauts as they emerged from their spacecraft. “On behalf of SpaceX, welcome home,” radioed SpaceX Mission Control in California.

Once aboard the recovery ship, the astronauts were placed into reclining stretchers for medical assessments, a standard procedure after long-duration spaceflight. Extended exposure to microgravity often results in muscle atrophy, bone density loss, and balance issues, requiring astronauts to undergo rehabilitation upon return. NASA officials confirmed that Wilmore and Williams would be transported back to Houston for a 45-day post-mission recovery program at the Johnson Space Center.

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