NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who are set to return to Earth on Tuesday, may be coming back sooner than expected. The duo has been in space for nine months, longer than planned, and will now dock with a new crew just days before their scheduled departure.
Typically, astronaut groups take up to a week to overlap at the International Space Station, but NASA is pushing for an earlier return due to favorable weather conditions along the Gulf Coast of Florida. The agency aims to conserve supplies by minimizing handover time.
Williams and Wilmore will board the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, which was previously used by Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov in September 2022. Their journey back will take approximately 17 hours. The new crew, including Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers from NASA, as well as Takuya Onishi from Japan’s space agency, arrived at the station on Sunday.
The astronauts have been living in space since June 2023, initially intended to be a brief test flight for the Boeing Starliner spacecraft. However, malfunctions forced NASA to leave them behind and bring back an empty capsule. During their extended stay, Williams and Wilmore conducted experiments, exploring the effects of microgravity on the human body.
Their prolonged stay has sparked interest among space enthusiasts, with many fascinated by their circumstances. The astronauts have made the most of their time, regularly broadcasting from the station and sharing their experiences with fans.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/us/spacex-iss-nasa-astronauts-return.html