Crew-9 Splashes Down in a SpaceX Dragon Near Tallahassee

NASA is welcoming astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore home after their ten-turned-286-day stay on the International Space Station. The pair splashed down off the Florida coast on March 18 alongside Crew-9 astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

Williams and Wilmore arrived at the ISS in June 2024 aboard a Boeing Starliner for what was supposed to be a simple 10-day crewed flight test. However, thanks to thruster malfunctions and a growing list of technical concerns, Starliner was ultimately flown back to Earth without them. NASA described their extended stay as a “mission plan shift” while the internet dubbed the duo “stranded astronauts.”

Fast forward several months, and the agency managed to secure Williams and Wilmore a ride home by booting two astronauts from the Crew-9 mission. This two-person crew was sent up to the ISS on September 28, 2024, and was expected to return once the following mission, Crew-10, docked.

This plan was complicated by delays to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule build. Crew-10 was initially supposed to launch in February but was pushed back to at least late March in a December announcement. With all boxes checked, Crew-10 was able to launch on March 14, 2025, on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. 

28 hours after launch, Crew-10 docked to the ISS and was greeted by the 7 astronauts already occupying it. The Crew-9 group then completed their final checks, said their goodbyes, and uncocked at 1:05 am on March 18. Wilmore, Willson, Hague, and Gorbunov splashed down at 5:57 pm off Tallahassee, Florida, and were quickly plucked out of the water by recovery teams. Their spacecraft will be shipped to SpaceX’s refurbishing facility at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for inspection and refurbishing.

“We are thrilled to have Suni, Butch, Nick, and Aleksandr home after their months-long mission conducting vital science, technology demonstrations, and maintenance aboard the International Space Station,” expressed NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro. “Through preparation, ingenuity, and dedication, we achieve great things together for the benefit of humanity, pushing the boundaries of what is possible from low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars.”

FMI: www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew