NASA confirms Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore's return date to Earth, shares splashdown time

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams are finally scheduled to return to Earth after more than nine months on board the International Space Station (ISS). Their return trip is scheduled for Tuesday, March 18, in the evening (GMT), NASA said on Sunday.

Williams and Wilmore are scheduled to travel back to Earth alongside Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. NASA will provide live coverage of the agency's SpaceX Crew-9 return to Earth from the International Space Station, beginning with Dragon spacecraft hatch closure preparations at 10:45 pm EDT on Monday. NASA and SpaceX met on Sunday to assess weather and splashdown conditions off Florida's coast for the return of the agency's Crew-9 mission from the International Space Station.

In a statement, NASA stated, "NASA will provide live coverage of the agency's SpaceX Crew-9 return to Earth from the International Space Station, beginning with Dragon spacecraft hatch closure preparations at 10:45 p.m. EDT Monday, March 17."

"NASA and SpaceX met on Sunday to assess weather and splashdown conditions off Florida's coast for the return of the agency's Crew-9 mission from the International Space Station. Mission managers are targeting an earlier Crew-9 return opportunity based on favorable conditions forecasted for the evening of Tuesday, March 18," it added.

According to a NASA statement, the updated return target continues to allow the space station crew members time to complete handover duties while providing operational flexibility before less-favourable weather conditions are expected later in the week.

Mission managers will continue monitoring weather conditions in the area, as Dragon's undocking relies on several factors, including spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, sea states, and other factors. NASA and SpaceX will confirm the specific splashdown location closer to the Crew-9 return, according to the statement.

March 16, 2025

SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov docked with International Space Station, Space X CEO Elon Musk announced on Sunday. On Friday, SpaceX and NASA launched a mission to bring back US astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore from the ISS, where they have been stranded for nine months. The lift-off took place at 7:03 ET on Friday, with a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon spacecraft on the Crew-10 mission.

The launch came after US President Donald Trump urged Elon Musk to rescue the stranded astronauts sooner than NASA had planned. He has repeatedly accused former US President Joe Biden of abandoning them in space. Wilmore and Williams have been stranded on the ISS for nine months after reaching there in June last year. They were supposed to stay there for about a week.

The astronauts were transported from Earth to the ISS aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. However, the spacecraft came back to Earth unmanned in September. This came after NASA and Boeing identified "helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters" on June 6 as Starliner approached the space station.

(With inputs from ANI)