'Stranded' NASA astronauts Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore to return to Earth soon; SpaceX's swap team launches to ISS
Trending | World | SCIENCE & TECH | NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will to Earth after 9 months on the ISS, following SpaceX's successful Crew-10 launch.
After more than nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, the two 'stranded' NASA astronauts, are finally nearing their long-awaited return—thanks to the successful launch of a replacement crew on Friday (Mar 14).
A Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a Crew Dragon spacecraft, lifted off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 7:03 pm (2303 GMT). Bound for the orbital outpost, the four-person Crew-10 mission marks the beginning of a crucial crew swap and the first step to bringing Williams and Wilmore home to Earth.
Also read | NASA-SpaceX mission to bring back stranded astronauts Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore delayed
SpaceX's Crew-10
The incoming Crew-10 team—NASA's Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan's Takuya Onishi, and Russia's Kirill Peskov—will carry out a variety of scientific experiments, including spacecraft fire safety tests and studies on how space affects the human body.
But all eyes are on what this arrival makes possible: the long-overdue departure of NASA's Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams.
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The journey home begins
The Crew-10 spacecraft is set to dock at the ISS late Saturday (Mar 15). Only then can Crew-9 begin preparations for their return, including Wilmore, Williams, NASA's Nick Hague, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Their splashdown off the Florida coast is expected no earlier than March 19 (Wednesday).
Stranded in space
Wilmore and Williams, both former US Navy pilots, have been stranded aboard the ISS since June. Their ride home—Boeing's Starliner—suffered propulsion failures during its debut crewed flight, rendering it unfit for their return. Instead, the capsule returned empty, leaving the two astronauts unexpectedly marooned.
What was meant to be a brief eight-day test mission stretched into an unprecedented nine-month stay—far exceeding the usual six-month astronaut rotation.
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'Abandoned' in space?
What began as a technical failure quickly turned political. Former President Donald Trump and SpaceX chief Elon Musk repeatedly accused President Joe Biden of deliberately "abandoning" the astronauts, without offering evidence.
Trump, meanwhile, made headlines for his own bizarre commentary, referring to Williams as "the woman with the wild hair" and speculating about her relationship with Wilmore. "They've been left up there -- I hope they like each other, maybe they love each other, I don't know," he said during a recent press conference.
(With inputs from agencies)
