Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been on the International Space Station (ISS) since June last year...
The mission was initially expected to last just over a week or two but was later extended after the Boeing Starliner capsule they arrived on was deemed unfit to return them to Earth. NASA decided to return the Starliner spacecraft empty after the discovery of helium leaks and issues with the craft’s control thrusters.
Williams and Wilmore were set to return to Earth in February during a handover alongside astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, both of whom arrived at the ISS in September 2024.
That mission was delayed until late March after SpaceX and NASA said they needed more time to complete the processing of a new Crew Dragon capsule that was set to arrive at the company’s processing facility in Florida in early January.
“The agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission with NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will return to Earth following the arrival of Crew-10 to the orbital laboratory,” NASA said in a December statement.
Despite the unplanned extension to their mission, NASA has insisted that Williams and Wilmore are in good health and that their time in orbit falls within acceptable limits.
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