Good news, folks! NASA has confirmed that stranded astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will be returning to Earth on March 18. The astronauts were stuck for more than nine months on the International Space Station (ISS) and will arrive on Earth on Tuesday evening (GMT). Scroll on to know more about the much-anticipated splashdown.
NASA Announces Sunita Williams’ Earth Return Date
All the hugs. 🫶
The hatch of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft opened March 16 at 1:35 a.m. ET and the members of Crew-10 entered the @Space_Station with the rest of their excited Expedition 72 crew. pic.twitter.com/mnUddqPqfr
— NASA’s Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) March 16, 2025
According to Hindustan Times, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are set to return to Earth on March 18 evening, a day earlier than the previously decided schedule. NASA, in a statement released on Sunday, said that due to “favourable conditions”, they were able to bring the astronauts back a day earlier.
The duo will be transported home with another American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon craft. The spacecraft arrived at the ISS early on Sunday. Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been on the ISS since June. They have been stuck there since last year when the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they were testing was hit by propulsion issues. After that, it was deemed unfit to fly them back to Earth.
As per NASA’s latest statement, the astronauts’ anticipated ocean splashdown off the Florida coast is around 5:57 PM Tuesday (Florida time), that is, 3:27 AM IST, March 19.
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Live Coverage Details Of The Splashdown
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are part of Crew-9. For their return, a replacement, Crew-10, was docked at ISS on March 16. The Crew 10, onboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 7:03 PM ET on March 14.
NASA will be providing live coverage of SpaceX Crew-9’s return to Earth from the ISS on NASA+. The entire event will be streaming live on their official website, mobile app, and various social media platforms. The Dragon spacecraft hatch closure preparations will begin at 10:45 PM EDT on Monday, March 17 (around 8:30 AM IST on March 18). The slated journey will mark the end of a nine-month ordeal for Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were meant to have been on a days-long roundtrip.
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Are you excited to watch this event live? Let us know in the comments.
Cover Image Courtesy: X/@NASA_Astronauts
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