NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams return to Earth after 9 months caught in area

On this picture taken from video supplied by NASA, a SpaceX capsule floats within the Gulf of Mexico, Tuesday, March 18, 2025, after touchdown off the coast of Florida with NASA astronauts Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore and Nick Hague, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov.
| Picture Credit score: AP

Caught in area no extra, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams returned to Earth on Tuesday (March 18, 2025), hitching a distinct trip residence to shut out a saga that started with a bungled check flight greater than 9 months in the past.

SpaceX crew Dragon splashdown LIVE

Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico within the early night, simply hours after departing the Worldwide Area Station. Splashdown occurred off the coast of Tallahassee within the Florida Panhandle, bringing their unplanned odyssey to an finish.

It began with a flawed Boeing check flight final spring.

The 2 are anticipated to be gone only a week or so after launching on Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule on June 5. So many issues cropped up on the way in which to the area station that NASA ultimately despatched Starliner again empty and transferred the check pilots to SpaceX, pushing their homecoming into February. Then SpaceX capsule points added one other month’s delay.

Sunday’s arrival of their reduction crew meant Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams may lastly go away. NASA minimize them free slightly early, given the iffy climate forecast later this week. They checked out with NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov, who arrived in their very own SpaceX capsule final fall with two empty seats reserved for the Starliner duo.

Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams ended up spending 286 days in area — 278 days longer than anticipated after they launched. They circled Earth 4,576 instances and traveled 121 million miles (195 million kilometers) by the point of splashdown.

Their plight captured the world’s consideration, giving new that means to the phrase “caught at work” and turning “Butch and Suni” into family names. Whereas different astronauts had logged longer spaceflights over the many years, none needed to cope with a lot uncertainty or see the size of their mission develop by a lot.