By The Pathfinder
Wednesday March 19, 2025
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After nine grueling months in space, NASA‘s stranded astronauts, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, have finally returned to Earth.
The duo landed safely on Wednesday as SpaceX’s Dragon Freedom capsule splashed down off the coast of Florida, ending a mission that was supposed to last just eight days but stretched to nine months.
Williams and Wilmore, alongside NASA’s Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, safely splashed down off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida at 5:57 p.m. ET Tuesday.
NASA confirmed their return on Wednesday in a post on X, saying, “Home sweet home. NASA’s SpaceX #Crew9 touched down at Johnson Space Center’s Ellington Field in Houston at 11:19 pm CDT, March 18, after their @Space_Station mission and successful splashdown earlier this afternoon.”
However, experts warn that Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams’ unplanned stay on the International Space Station (ISS) could have serious health impacts.
Shocking before-and-after images show the terrifying damage that months spent in the harsh conditions in space will do to you.
The crew’s highly anticipated return came after the crew climbed aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and departed the International Space Station at 1:05 a.m. ET Tuesday.
The quartet is part of the Crew-9 mission, a routine staff rotation jointly operated by NASA and SpaceX. The Crew-9 capsule launched to the space station in September with Hague and Gorbunov riding alongside two empty seats reserved for Williams and Wilmore, who had been on the orbiting laboratory since last June, when their original ride — a Boeing Starliner spacecraft — malfunctioned.
Safely reaching Earth concluded a trip that, for Williams and Wilmore, has garnered broad interest because of the unexpected nature of their extended stay in orbit and the dramatic turn of events that prevented them from returning home aboard the Boeing Starliner vehicle.
“Welcome home to the Crew-9 astronauts — NASA’s Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Your dedication and unwavering commitment to space exploration inspires us all,” Boeing Space shared on social platform X after the crew returned home.
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