It is expected that the two NASA astronauts will soon be on their way back to Earth after installing nine months in space.
Sunita Williams and Barry Willmore are scheduled to depart the International Space Station (ISS) early Tuesday morning, and are expected to splash off Florida coast in the evening. The original Return spacecraft, a Boeing Starliner, was deemed unsafe to return home, forcing the astronauts to stay in space much longer than planned.
Everything you need to know about their extended stay and their long-awaited returns.
Who are the two astronauts stuck in space?
The two astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) are 59-year-old Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Willmore, 61, both veteran NASA-trained space travelers.
Williams, the current commander of the ISS and a retired US Navy officer, joined NASA in 1998. In her career, she spent 322 days in space, completing nine spaceships. She previously held the most spaceship records by female astronauts.
Wilmore was the first to fly into space on the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2009. Before the Boeing Star Liner mission, he had recorded 178 days in space. He served as a flight engineer and commander on previous ISS missions, conducting research into the growth of plants in space, the effects of microgravity on the human body, and changes in the environment on Earth.
On the Boeing mission, Willmore served as commander and Williams was the pilot.
When and how will they return to Earth?
Wilmore and Williams are scheduled to leave IS just after 12:45am on Tuesday (04:45am GMT on Tuesday) after the replacement arrived at the space station on Sunday.
They will board the SpaceX crew Dragon capsules that have been docked at the station since September 2024. This capsule originally took NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian astronaut Alexander Golbunov to the ISS, with two empty seats remaining for the return of Wilmore and Williams.
The four were unable to return to the same capsule until an additional crew carrying the other four astronauts arrived and replaced them.
That’s happening now. Crew-10 docked to the ISS at 12:04am (04:04 GMT) on Sunday, consisting of NASA astronauts Ann McLain and Nicole Ayers, Japanese astronauts onishi and Russian astronaut Kiril Peskov. They launched on Friday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.
Late Monday night, the process of Williams and Wilmore returning began. Preparations for the hatch closure began at 10:45pm (02:45 GMT).
NASA is live streaming astronauts’ departures and return trips. According to NASA, the Crew Dragon Capsules that will bring them back are expected to be a little away from the ISS after 12:45am (04:45 GMT). It is expected to jump into the Atlantic just before 6pm (22:00 GMT).
Why were they stuck?
Williams and Wilmore are stuck with the intention of bringing them home after technical issues with the spacecraft.
They were on a Boeing CST-100 Starliner as part of their first crew test flight. Under NASA’s commercial crew program, the mission is intended to develop civilian spacecraft to transport astronauts to stations. By outsourcing low-Earth orbital missions, NASA said it aims to focus on deep space exploration, including Artemis missions to the Moon and future human missions to Mars.
During the 25-hour flight to the ISS, Starliner experienced helium leaks and malfunctioning thrusters. When it arrived on June 6th, four of the 28 more thrusters failed, delaying docking at the station.
The engineers recovered five failed thrusters, but NASA deems the spacecraft too dangerous for human travel, sending it back into the sky, leaving Williams and Wilmore behind in the ISS.
In August 2024, NASA decided to return to SpaceX vehicles. Crew Dragon 9, released on September 29, 2024, has been docked to the ISS ever since, but previously brought home left only one US astronaut on the space station, limiting research and emergency response.
Now, when exchange members arrive at Crew 10, Williams and Willmore are finally able to return home.
How long are the two astronauts stuck in space?
Williams and Wilmore will be in space from June 5th, 2024. That means they spend more than nine months on orbit before they get back.
After blowing it off Cape Canaveral, Florida in June, they were originally scheduled to remain in space for just eight days.
The standard ISS rotation for astronauts is about six months.
How did they survive in space for so long?
Despite an unexpected extension of their stay, Williams and Wilmore remained healthy and carried out a spaceship together in January.
Life on an ISS follows a structured routine with exercise, work and leisure. This includes the usual routines of both the treadmill and resistance machines to maintain bone and muscle strength.
Throughout the year, several space agencies and private companies scheduled missions to replenish space stations with food, water and oxygen regularly refilled with cargo missions.
During Christmas, the two enjoyed a festive dinner that included smoked oysters, clubs, duck fore sauce, cranberry sauce, Atlantic lobster and smoked salmon, according to the Times newspaper in London.
Williams and Wilmore were also able to maintain contact with their family through email and phone calls.
In an interview with Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News in November, Williams said she and Willmore were “feeling good, working out, eating right.”
“There’s a lot of fun here too,” she added. “Those who are worried about us, really, don’t worry about us… we’re a happy crew here.”
Has the astronaut been stuck in space before?
Williams and Wilmore are not the first astronauts to face an extension in space due to unexpected circumstances. There were previous cases where astronauts had to stay in orbit longer than planned due to technical issues or geopolitical events.
The longest space flight by US astronauts was Frank Rubio’s 371-day mission on the ISS from 2022 to 2023, extended due to issues with the Soyuz spacecraft that led him into orbit. He eventually returned to another Soyuz capsule.
In 1991, Soviet astronaut Sergei Krikalev was tied up to the now-commissioned Mir Space Station for 311 days with the disbandment of the Soviet Union.
Political turmoil and lack of funds slowed his profits, forcing him to stay on track much longer than planned. When he finally landed in March 1992, he returned to the newly independent Russia, not the Soviet Union.
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