With a fresh crew now aboard the International Space Station, the four fliers they are replacing — including long-delayed Starliner astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams — undocked early Tuesday for a long-awaited return to Earth, finally closing out an extended 286-day space odyssey.
Launched last June aboard Boeing’s problem-plagued Starliner capsule, Wilmore and Williams are sharing the 17-hour ride home with Crew 9 commander Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, who were launched to the station last September aboard the same SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying all four of them home.
The Crew 9 Dragon drifts away from the International Space Station after undocking early Tuesday. On board: Crew 9 commander Nick Hague, cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, Starliner commander Barry
“On behalf of Crew 9, I’d like to say it was a privilege to call the station home, to live and work and be a part of a mission and a team that spans the globe, working together in cooperatoin for the benefit of humanity,” Hague radioed as the Crew Dragon drifted away from the station.
Hague, left, and Gorbunov, right, monitor the Crew Dragon’s departure from the International Space Station . / Credit: NASA
“To our colleagues and dear friends who remain on the station … we know the station’s in great hands. We’re excited to see what you guys are going to accomplish.”
Splashdown off Florida’s Gulf Coast south of Tallahassee is expected at 5:57 p.m. EDT.
Wearing white SpaceX pressure suits, Starliner commander Barry
For Wilmore and Williams, the long overdue trip back to Earth will wrap up a repeatedly extended mission totaling 286 days and 7 hours spanning 4,576 orbits and 121 million miles. They originally expected to spend just eight days or so in orbit.
How will the astronauts return to Earth?
After bidding their station crewmates farewell, Hague and company floated into their Crew Dragon and undocked from the ISS Harmony module’s space-facing port at 1:05 a.m. Sixteen hours later, the flight plan called for an automated seven-and-a-half-minute de-orbit thruster firing starting at 5:11 p.m. to slow the ship down for re-entry.
After a 27-minute free fall, the spacecraft was expected to plunge back into the discernible atmosphere for the final 12 minutes of the descent, making a parachute-assisted splashdown off the Florida panhandle’s Gulf Coast a few minutes before 6 p.m.
A SpaceX recovery ship will be stationed nearby to haul the spacecraft on board so the crew can be helped out of the Crew Dragon’s cabin and onto stretchers for initial medical checks.
Why were the astronauts stuck longer at the ISS?
Wilmore and Williams launched to the International Space Station last June 5 on the first piloted test flight of Boeing’s Starliner. The spacecraft suffered multiple propulsion system helium leaks and thruster problems during rendezvous with the space station, and NASA eventually decided to keep them on the station and to bring the Starliner down, without its crew, by remote control.
NASA launched the next crew rotation mission — Crew 9 — in September carrying just two crew members, Hague and Gorbunov, instead of four. Wilmore and Williams then joined the Crew 9 fliers aboard the ISS for a normal-duration six-month mission.
Wilmore and Williams, in white pressure suits, join Crew 9 commander Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, wearing pressure suit undergarments, pose for photos before boarding their Crew Dragon and undocking from the International Space Station early Tuesday. / Credit: NASA
By keeping them in space as part of Crew 9, NASA was able to minimize the disruption to the ISS crew rotation sequence while maintaining a full slate of experiments and research.
NASA cleared the way for Crew 9’s return to Earth by launching four replacements — Crew 10 commander Anne McClain, pilot Nichole Ayers, cosmonaut Kirill Peskov and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi — last Friday.
Normal practice calls for a five-day “handover” between crews so the new arrivals can be fully briefed on the ins and outs of station operations and maintenance. But in this case, handover was shortened to just one day to take advantage of predicted favorable splashdown weather in the Gulf.
Wearing dark blue flight suits, Crew 10 commander Anne McClain, pilot Nichole Ayers, cosmonaut Kirill Peskov and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi are welcomed aboard the space station after arrival early Saturday. With Crew 10 on board, Crew 9, including the two Starliner astronauts, were cleared for return to Earth. / Credit: NASA
All station astronauts spend two hours a day exercising to minimize bone and muscle loss in the weightlessness of space. Even so, Wilmore and Williams will face extensive rehabilitation over the next several weeks and months as their bodies re-adapt to the unfamiliar tug of gravity.
Hague and Gorbunov, who spent spent 171 days in space, will re-adapt more quickly, perhaps, but both will require physical therapy.
Was this the longest any U.S. astronaut has stayed in space?
While 286 days is a long flight by normal NASA standards, it’s well short of the U.S. record for a single flight — 371 days, set by astronaut Frank Rubio in 2022-23.
Ironically, Rubio’s record was the result of another extended mission, this one the result of a major coolant leak in the Russian Soyuz he launched aboard. The Russians decided not to bring the crew down aboard their original spacecraft and instead launched a replacement.
As a result, Rubio ended up spending a little more than a full year in space, twice as long as he originally expected.
Given Williams’ two previous stays aboard the space station, she will move up to No. 2 on the list of most experienced U.S. astronauts with 608 days in space overall. Only former astronaut Peggy Whitson has more time aloft, 675 days over four flights. Wilmore’s total across three flights will stand at 464 days aloft. Wilmore’s total across three flights will stand at 464 days aloft.
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