The return date for NASA’s stranded astronauts has changed again.
NASA officials announced the pair are due back from the International Space Station (ISS) on March 16, about three days earlier than expected.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have now spent more than nine months in space after their original eight-day mission was delayed due to technical issues with their faulty Boeing spacecraft.
Williams and Wilmore plan to return to Earth inside a SpaceX spacecraft that is already docked to the ISS. But they can’t leave until a different SpaceX ship brings a new team of astronauts to the space station to replace the stranded duo.
That mission, called Crew-10, will launch on March 12. Its four-astronaut crew is expected to board the ISS on March 13.
The four astronauts are expected to depart about three days after the Crew-10 mission delivers their replacements to the space station.
Typically, a departing ISS crew shares the space station with the incoming crew for about five days in what’s known as a ‘handover period.’ This allows them to get the new crew up to speed on space station operations and ensures a smooth transition.
But this time, NASA has decided to shorten the handover period to just two days to conserve food on board the ISS and open up more undocking opportunities for the Starliner crew in case the weather interferes with their March 16 return.
The news of their hastened homecoming was probably well-received by Williams and Wilmore’s families, who have spent the last 278 days without their loved ones.
NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore (left), Sunita Williams (right), Nick Hague (center right) and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov (center left) should return from the ISS on March 16
When the pair launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5, they were only supposed to spend eight days on the ISS.
But a series of technical issues with Starliner, including thruster failures and helium leaks, ultimately drove NASA to send the faulty spacecraft home without its crew in September.
Williams and Wilmore have been living on the ISS ever since.
The crew’s delayed return recently entered the political spotlight after SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk and President Donald Trump claimed the astronauts were ‘abandoned’ in space by the Biden administration for ‘political reasons.’
Musk has said that the former president rejected his offer to bring the Starliner crew home earlier because it would have made Donald Trump ‘look good.’
Musk backed Trump during the 2024 presidential race, donating $288 million to his campaign and appearing at several MAGA rallies.
During a recent appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience, Musk claimed the Biden administration rejected his offer to bring the Starliner astronauts home sooner to avoid making Trump ‘look good.’
He explained that the former administration did not want to jeopardize Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign and intentionally ‘pushed the return date past the inauguration date.’
By the time they get home, Williams and Wilmore will have spent 284 days in space
The Starliner and Crew-9 astronauts will leave the ISS about three days after the Crew-10 mission delivers Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi (L to R), NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, Russian cosmonaut Kiril Peskov and NASA astronaut Anne McClain to the space station
Musk also noted that the Biden administration was suing SpaceX at the time.
NASA officials have not directly addressed these claims.
But during the Friday press briefing, Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of the agency’s Space Operation Mission Directorate, said SpaceX has been working with NASA to develop a backup return plan for the Starliner mission since last July.
‘The SpaceX folks helped us with a lot of options for how we would bring Butch and Suni home on Dragon in a contingency,’ Bowersox said
‘When it comes to adding on missions, or bringing a capsule home early, those were always options. But we ruled them out pretty quickly just based on how much money we’ve got in our budget, and the importance of keeping crews on the International Space Station. They’re an important part of maintaining the station.’
Any discussions about alternative backup plans were held within NASA, officials said, so it’s unclear why Musk claimed to have spoken directly to the Biden administration about rescuing the astronauts sooner.
There is no way to verify whether this actually occurred, but if it did, it would appear that the Biden administration never communicated Musk’s offer to NASA decisionmakers.
Ultimately, NASA decided to send SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission to the ISS with just two astronauts — NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Aleksandr Gorbunov — even though the Dragon spacecraft is equipped with four seats.
‘It takes a full crew to continuously crew the space station, both for science and for maintenance, and that is the work that we’re looking forward to doing when we get to the space station,’ NASA astronaut and Crew-10 mission commander Anne McClain said Friday
Crew-9 arrived at the ISS a few weeks after Starliner was sent home without Williams and Wilmore in September. It has been docked to the ISS ever since, with its two extra seats reserved for the Starliner crew.
‘When we looked at the situation at the time, we had a Crew-9 launch in front of us. It made sense to take the opportunity to bring Crew-9 up with just two seats and have Butch and Suni fill in, and do the rest of the long-duration mission,’ ISS program manager Dana Weigel explained during the Friday press briefing.
But before the Starliner and Crew-9 astronauts can leave the ISS, SpaceX’s Crew-10 mission must deliver a new team of astronauts to replace them.
That team includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers as well as Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
Crew-10 is scheduled to launch at 7:48pm ET on Wednesday, March 12 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA officials announced Friday.
If the launch goes according to plan, the Crew-10 Dragon capsule should dock to the ISS at roughly 10am ET on Thursday, March 13.
Once the Crew-10 astronauts board the space station, they will begin their shortened, two-day handover period with Crew-9.
After the handover period concludes, the earliest undocking opportunity for the Crew-9 Dragon capsule will be March 16, pending the weather conditions at their potential splashdown locations.
If the weather looks good, the Starliner and Crew-9 astronauts will board the Dragon spacecraft, undock from the ISS and head back to Earth.
By the time they get home, Williams and Wilmore will have spent 284 days in space.
