Washington, DC [US]: After being stranded for over nine months, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are scheduled to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday, beginning their 17-hour journey back to Earth.
Wilmore, Williams, and two other astronauts are set to depart the ISS at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, with their splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico expected at 3:30 a.m. on Thursday.
The returning astronaut crew will travel alongside NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.
During a live NASA broadcast, Nick Hague, Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Aleksandr Gorbunov were seen packing up and closing hatches as Crew-9 prepared for departure from the ISS.
Reflecting on his mission, Nick Hague shared, “It’s been a privilege to call the Space Station home, to play my part in its 25-year legacy of doing research for humanity, and to work with colleagues, now friends, from around the globe. My spaceflight career, like most, is full of the unexpected.”
NASA announced that it will provide live coverage of the Crew-9 return to Earth, starting with Dragon spacecraft hatch closure preparations at 10:45 p.m. EDT on Monday.
“NASA and SpaceX met on Sunday to assess weather and splashdown conditions off Florida’s coast for the return of the agency’s Crew-9 mission from the International Space Station. Mission managers are targeting an earlier Crew-9 return opportunity based on favourable conditions forecasted for the evening of Tuesday, March 18,” NASA stated.
According to NASA, the adjusted return timeline allows ISS crew members to complete their handover duties while ensuring flexibility before less favourable weather conditions are expected later in the week.
Mission managers will continue monitoring conditions in the area, as Dragon’s undocking depends on several factors, including spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, and sea conditions. NASA and SpaceX will confirm the exact splashdown location closer to the Crew-9 return.
Meanwhile, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced on Sunday that a Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov had successfully docked with the ISS.
On Friday, NASA and SpaceX launched a mission to bring Williams and Wilmore back to Earth after their unexpected nine-month stay aboard the ISS. The mission lifted off at 7:03 p.m. ET on Friday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew-10 mission Dragon spacecraft.
The launch followed pressure from former US President Donald Trump, who urged Elon Musk to expedite the rescue of the stranded astronauts. Trump had repeatedly criticized former President Joe Biden for allegedly “abandoning” the astronauts in space.
Wilmore and Williams initially traveled to the ISS in June last year aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft for what was intended to be a brief one-week mission. However, the spacecraft returned to Earth unmanned in September after NASA and Boeing discovered “helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters” as Starliner approached the space station.