Eight Months Instead of Eight Days in Space: NASA to Finally Bring Two Astronauts Back from the ISS

NASA has finally announced the return date for two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stranded on the International Space Station since June 2024 and spent more than 8 months in space instead of eight days. The launch of NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 is scheduled for Wednesday, 12 March, and the Crew-9 mission is scheduled to return to Earth after a several-day handover period with the newly arrived Crew-10 crew.  

In June 2024, the astronauts' test mission, which was originally scheduled to last about eight days, was postponed due to problems with the Boeing Starliner's propulsion system. These technical problems called into question the spacecraft's ability to safely return the astronauts to Earth as planned. Therefore, NASA decided to return the Starliner to Earth without astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. They will remain on the International Space Station until February 2025. The agency announced in August that it was instructing Elon Musk's SpaceX to return the crew home. American billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX is a direct competitor to Boeing in the spaceflight industry.

Musk, one of President Donald Trump's closest advisers, promised in late January to return them to Earth ‘as soon as possible’. As part of SpaceX's Crew-9 mission, the two astronauts arrived at the ISS in September aboard the Dragon spacecraft, with two seats available for Wilmore and Williams. But their return was postponed when NASA announced that Crew 10, which was supposed to replace them, would not fly until the end of March.