NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams successfully returned to Earth on Wednesday morning (AEST) after problems with Boeing’s spacecraft extended their stay on the International Space Station for nine months, an issue that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump claimed the Biden administration prolonged for “political reasons.”
Key Takeaways
- Wilmore and Williams, who were joined by NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, departed from the ISS at about 1:05 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, according to NASA, and splashed down at 5:57 p.m. EDT.
- The astronauts traveled in SpaceX’s Dragon capsule before splashing down off the coast near Tallahassee, Florida, as planned just before 6 p.m., though NASA had warned there could have been potential delays with “less favorable” weather conditions.
- SpaceX commentators said it would take about 30 minutes for the astronauts to be retrieved from the Dragon capsule after it splashed down.
- SpaceX launched NASA’s Crew-10 mission to relieve Wilmore and Williams aboard the ISS last week, as NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos’ Kirill Peskov took over their shift.
Big Number
About 285. That’s how many days Wilmore and Williams spent aboard the ISS, after their mission was expected to end sometime in June 2024.
What Have Elon Musk And Donald Trump Said About The Nasa Astronauts?
Trump said Monday he spoke with acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro, who Trump said “agreed to let our astronauts come home.” He also claimed he asked Musk to “go up and get the abandoned astronauts” because the “Biden administration was incapable of doing so” and “shamefully forgot” about them.
Trump previously suggested, without evidence, that Wilmore and Williams were abandoned by the Biden administration and intended to “leave them in space.” Musk has claimed the astronauts were left in orbit for “political reasons,” as a return flight was “postponed to a ridiculous degree.” Trump and Musk said in January they would accelerate plans for their return, though NASA officials reportedly stuck with an initially scheduled return in February. Additional battery work on SpaceX’s capsule also held up the return before the company swapped the capsule out for another, moving the return flight up by a couple of weeks.
Were Williams And Wilmore Abandoned On The Iss?
Williams appeared to deny claims she and Wilmore were stranded on the ISS, saying, “I don’t think those words are quite accurate … We are part of something bigger than ourselves, we are part of the International Space Station.” Wilmore indicated they were never abandoned in an interview with The New York Times: “It’s been trying at times, no doubt. But stranded? No. Stuck? No. Abandoned? No.”
Key Background
Wilmore and Williams arrived at the ISS on Boeing’s Starliner in June 2024, though NASA delayed their return flight after officials discovered helium leaks and thruster issues with the spacecraft. SpaceX, which has now sent 10 crewed missions to rotate staff aboard the ISS, launched a crewed Dragon capsule to return the astronauts in September. The capsule included two open seats for Wilmore and Williams to return with Hague and Gorbunov. Wilmore and Williams could have returned on the capsule in September, though the ISS would have been understaffed with just Hague and Gorbunov, according to the Times.
An earlier launch for the Crew-10 mission was delayed after a “hydraulic ground issue,” while another launch effort was scrubbed because of high winds and precipitation forecast for Dragon’s flight path. Future crewed missions are planned aboard SpaceX’s spacecraft, including Crew-11, which NASA has scheduled to launch to the ISS no earlier than July 2025.
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