NASA Astronauts Butch Wilmore, on the left, and Suni Williams perch inside the hatch that connects Boeing Starliner with the International Space Station in
POT
The two American astronauts who had been at the International Space Station for nine months after defect Boeing The Starliner capsule returned without them finally heading home.
NASA Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams left the Earth in June on a trial flight that originally intended to last about nine days.
But his stay extended after the Boeing Starliner capsule “Calypso” failed during the coupling, which generated concerns about the ship's ability to take them home. The agency finally sent the empty capsule after it was docked for about three months at the space station, saying that it wanted to “understand the root causes” of the spacecraft problems.
NASA also announced that Wilmore and Williams, who are veteran astronauts and proof pilots withdrawn, would return in a Spacex Dragon spacecraft. The agency adjusted its rotation of astronauts as a result, eliminating two people from the CREW-9 mission of Spacex, which returns to the earth this week, to leave space for Wilmore and Williams.
That capsule that transported the two people on the crew-9 reached the ISS in September. The teams revolve in the ISS, which means that each group of astronauts works until the next one comes to the space station, when a ceremonial “transfer” occurs.
The Falcon 9 rocket of Spacex rises, transporting NASA crew astronauts to the International Space Station at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, UU., March 14, 2025.
Skipper Joe | Reuters
NASA had originally planned for the CREW-10 mission of Spacex, which had to arrive before the crew members could go down again, to launch in February, but approximately one month was delayed.
The rocket that led to the four new crew members was launched on Friday night, and its capsule docked at the space station about 29 hours later.
Wilmore, Williams, NASA astronaut Nasa Hague and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov are ready to splash on Tuesday night, approximately 19 hours after closing the hatch in the Spacex capsule, according to NASA's estimated calendar.
It was supposed that the Starliner crew flight would mark a final box for Boeing and deliver a key asset for NASA. The agency hoped to fulfill its dream of having two competitive companies, Boeing Spacex and Elon Musk, flying alternative missions to the ISS.
Instead, it is not clear what are Boeing's future spatial plans. The company has lost more than $ 2 billion in its Starliner spacecraft.
This image taken from the video published by NASA shows, from the left, Butch Wilmore, Nick Hague and Suni Williams speaking during a press conference, Tuesday, March 4, 2025.
Nasa | AP
Wilmore and Williams's journey was entangled in politics once President Donald Trump assumed the position. Trump and Musk, who have become a nearby advisor to the president, urged a faster crew launch and said without evidence that the two astronauts were “stranded” in the space station and that the Biden administration had kept them there for political reasons. NASA had delayed the launch of the crew-10 in December to allow more time to process a new dragon capsule, but decided to use a reusable capsule to reduce waiting time.
NASA's plans to return to the two astronauts have remained consistent since the agency announced them in August.
During their extended stay, Wilmore and Williams became part of a normal rotation, carrying out scientific experiments and routine maintenance like any other astronaut in the rotation in the ISS would. Williams also made a space walk.
Williams has repeatedly said that the couple does not feel “abandoned” by the ISS, but that he hoped to return home to see his family and two dogs.
“It has been a roller coaster for them, probably a little more than for us,” he told reporters earlier this month.
