SpaceX Dragon Splashes Down Tuesday After Undocking From ISS

The two NASA astronauts who traveled to the International Space Station aboard the Boeing Starliner spacecraft in June 2024 for a planned week-long stay have finally returned to Earth, more than nine months later.

Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, along with fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov undocked from the Station’s Harmony module at 5:05 UTC on March 18 to begin the nearly 17-hour flight back to a splashdown off the Florida coast where they were picked up by a SpaceX recovery ship.

Williams and Wilmore were forced to stay longer than originally planned due to technical issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that lofted them to the Station. It was decided to keep the astronauts at the Station rather than risk returning in the questionable Starliner, which did end up returning in September safely but empty.

Following that decision, their return was hampered by political bickering and finger-pointing, but the two were never in any real danger. And although the pair’s extended stay has been described as “stranded,” they, along with Hague, were able to accomplish much – 900 hours worth, in fact – in the way of about 150 scientific experiments and technology demos that otherwise would have waited for the next crew rotation.

All in all, the experience was another example of the unpredictable nature of space exploration, or exploration of any kind.

Wilmore said, “We came up prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short. That’s what we do in human space flight – planning for unknown unexpected contingencies and we did that. That’s why we float right into Crew-9, and it was a somewhat of a seamless transition because we had planned ahead for it.” 

FMI:  www.nasa.gov/