Sunita Williams Live Updates: NASA astronaut Suni Williams being helped out of a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on board the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN after he, NASA astronauts Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov landed in the water off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, on March 18, 2025.
Sunita Williams live updates: Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Earth after spending over nine months at the International Space Station (ISS) due to unexpected delays. Their spacecraft, SpaceX’s Dragon Freedom capsule, successfully splashed down off the Florida coast near Tallahassee, at 5.57 pm ET on Tuesday (3:27am IST, Wednesday)….Read More
‘Butch and Suni’ were accompanied by astronauts Nick Hague and Aleksandr Grebyonkin who reached the ISS in December as part of a rescue mission planned by NASA and SpaceX.
“On behalf of SpaceX, welcome home,” radioed SpaceX Mission Control in California.
An hour after their 17-hour-long journey, the astronauts were out of their scorched capsule, waving and smiling at the cameras while being hustled away in reclining stretchers for routine medical checks.
Political undertones of the successful rescue were hard to miss as The White House claimed that the rescue mission was due to President Trump’s efforts. “PROMISE MADE, PROMISE KEPT: President Trump pledged to rescue the astronauts stranded in space for nine months. Today, they safely splashed down in the Gulf of America, thanks to @ElonMusk, @SpaceX, and @NASA!” it wrote on X.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore travelled to the ISS in June last year for a scheduled eight-day mission. They were forced to stay as the Boeing Starliner capsule developed issues with its propulsion system. The duo was the first crew to fly Boeing’s Starliner in a test flight. The faulty capsule returned to Earth last September.
Sunita Williams | Key points
- Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore spent 286 days on the International Space Station, where they conducted over 4500 orbits and travelled more than 121 million statute miles
- The crew will undergo NASA’s 45-day post-mission rehabilitation program is designed to help astronauts recover from the physical effects of spaceflight.
- ‘Butch and Suni’ ended up spending 286 days in space — 278 days longer than anticipated when they launched. They circled Earth 4,576 times and travelled 121 million miles (195 million kilometres) by the time of splashdown.
- Sunita Williams, capping her third spaceflight, will have tallied 608 cumulative days in space, the second most for any US astronaut after Peggy Whitson’s 675 days. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko set the world record last year at 878 cumulative days.
Follow all the updates here:
Mar 19, 2025 7:19 AM IST
Sunita Williams live updates: As Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Butch Wilmore return home, some of the health risks they have encountered are well-understood and managed, while others continue to remain unknown.
The focus will now shift to their scientific discoveries and also their physical recovery after enduring challenging conditions in space.
Read here to know more on physical impact of long space stays.
Mar 19, 2025 7:15 AM IST
This image taken from video released by SpaceX shows, from left, NASA’s Butch Wilmore, Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov, NASA’s Nick Hague, and NASA’s Suni Williams wait to exit the SpaceX capsule after splashing down, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (SpaceX via AP) (AP)
Mar 19, 2025 7:12 AM IST
Sunita Williams live updates: Crew-9 astronauts, including Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, were flown by helicopters to Houston, where they will meet their family members in a day or two.
They will also begin NASA’s 45-day rehabilitation program to recover from physical degradation of long space stay.
Mar 19, 2025 7:02 AM IST
Sunita Williams live updates: Elon Musk congratulated the NASA and SpaceX teams on their successful return and thanked Trump for prioritising the mission.
“Congratulations to the SpaceX and NASA teams for another safe astronaut return! Thank you to Donald Trump for prioritizing this mission!” he said.
Mar 19, 2025 7:00 AM IST
Sunita Williams live updates: The White House hailed the safe return of astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, highlighting it as a fulfilment of President Trump’s commitment.
“PROMISE MADE, PROMISE KEPT: President Trump pledged to rescue the astronauts stranded in space for nine months. Today, they safely splashed down in the Gulf of America, thanks to @ElonMusk, @SpaceX, and @NASA!” The White House wrote in a post on X.
Mar 19, 2025 6:58 AM IST
Sunita Williams live updates: People in Jhulasan, the native village of NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, celebrated her safe return to Earth on Wednesday by performing aarti and offering prayers after she spent nearly nine months in space.
The celebrations began after the successful splashdown of the Dragon spacecraft, which brought Williams back to Earth along with Crew-9 members Butch Wilmore, Nick Hague, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Mar 19, 2025 6:51 AM IST
Sunita Williams live updates: SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule named Freedom re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, enduring scorching temperatures of around 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius) before the capsule can deployed its parachutes and splashed down off the coast of Florida, near Tallahassee, at 5.57 pm ET on Tuesday (3:27 am IST, Wednesday).
