Boeing’s Stranded Astronauts Are Finally Flying Home After Nine Months In Space

Boeing astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams flew to the International Space Station on June 5, 2024 for an eight-day mission into space and finally, after nine months in orbit, the pair is flying back to Earth as you read this.

Wilmore and Williams have been stranded on the International Space Station since issues arose on the Boeing Starliner craft that flew them into orbit. The pair was meant to spend about a week onboard the ISS, but after problems were uncovered with Starliner’s engines, they were left up there for longer. Much, much longer.

SpaceX finally launched a relief mission last week, which transported a new crew up to the ISS and allowed Wilmore, Williams and fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to fly home.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon mission docked with the space station this weekend, allowing Wilmore and Williams to finally load their belongings into the return capsule and head back to Earth. Early this morning, the capsule detached from the ISS and the four began their flight home, reports Space.com:

Wilmore, Williams, fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov departed the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule “Freedom” early Tuesday morning (March 18), setting up their splashdown off the coast of Florida later the same day. The undocking occurred at 1:05 a.m. EDT (0505 GMT) as the two vehicles were 261 statute miles (420 kilometers) above Earth off the coast of Guam in the Pacific Ocean.

The Freedom craft’s return to Earth is expected to kick off around 5 p.m EST, Tuesday March 18. Once the craft carries out a de-orbit burn, it will then splash down in the Gulf of Mexico around 45 minutes later.

By the time Freedom departed from the ISS earlier today, Wilmore and Williams had spent 285 days in space. That’s 277 more days than they were planning on spending onboard the orbital space lab.

The extension to their stay in orbit came after problems arose with the Boeing Starliner craft that flew them to the ISS. During the flight, which was the first crewed mission for Starliner, its propulsion systems ran into issues and six of its 28 thrusters stopped working.

NASA and Boeing engineers spent almost a month deciding on the best course of action for the craft and its crew, before NASA ultimately elected to bring the craft back to Earth empty. After this call was made, it was decided that Wilmore and Williams would form part of the ISS crew and stay in space until a relief crew was sent into orbit.

Under this new plan, Wilmore and Williams remained in space for more than nine months while they awaited the next launch of a Crew Dragon capsule from SpaceX. Elon Musk’s space company was due to send the new crew up to the ISS early last week, but last-minute delays thwarted the effort.

SpaceX pushed back the launch of its Crew Dragon capsule to Friday March 14 after strong winds and rain hit its launch pad. The capsule then docked with the ISS early on Saturday, dropping off new crewmembers, including NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, explained NASA. 

The new crew will be stationed on the ISS for roughly six months, which is the standard rotation time for astronauts and cosmonauts onboard the floating space station.