NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Earth on March 18, 2025, ending a mission that lasted 286 days after their original ride home was judged unsuitable. Their SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon capsule splashed down off Florida before recovery teams lifted it onto a ship and assisted its occupants out.
Williams and Wilmore had launched in June 2024 on the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. The assignment was planned to last eight days, but technical problems with the capsule led NASA to extend their stay aboard the International Space Station. The agency ultimately sent Starliner back to Earth without its crew and incorporated the two astronauts into station operations while arranging another return.
Crew-9 commander Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov travelled home with them. Their Dragon departed the station and spent about 17 hours in transit before re-entering the atmosphere. Parachutes slowed the capsule from orbital speed ahead of its ocean landing. Williams and Wilmore smiled and waved after the hatch opened, while recovery personnel followed standard procedures for astronauts readjusting after prolonged exposure to microgravity.
NASA officials said the crew was doing well and would undergo medical checks before reuniting with family members. The astronauts were expected to spend time recovering their balance, muscle strength and tolerance of gravity. Their extended assignment had placed them among long-duration station residents rather than the short-term test crew originally envisaged.
The unexpected months in orbit were used for station work. NASA’s Joel Montalbano said Williams and Wilmore participated in 150 experiments and accumulated about 900 hours of research. Their ability to shift roles allowed the station programme to continue while mission planners worked through the transport problem.
Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, thanked SpaceX for adapting Crew-9 and said the agency remained engaged with Boeing on Starliner certification and a return to flight. He also argued that the incident demonstrated the value of having more than one American crew vehicle available. The return resolved the immediate question of how Williams and Wilmore would get home, but it did not itself settle Starliner’s technical future.
The March 18 splashdown therefore closed an unusually prolonged human-spaceflight mission created by a test vehicle’s difficulties. What began as a brief demonstration became a nine-month operational stay, followed by a return on a competitor’s spacecraft. NASA said post-flight debriefings and medical recovery would precede time off for the astronauts.
