Fri Feb 14 14:55:17 UTC 2025: **NASA Astronauts to Return to Earth After Eight-Month Delay**
**Houston, TX** – NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, stranded aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since June 2024 due to technical issues with their spacecraft, are finally coming home. A rescue mission, Crew-10, is scheduled to launch on March 12th, bringing a fresh crew of astronauts to the ISS and returning Williams and Wilmore to Earth a week later on March 19th.
The stranded astronauts confirmed the return date in an exclusive interview with CNN. Their extended stay resulted from malfunctions with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft. The Crew-10 mission, involving NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, will undertake a week-long handover process with Williams and Wilmore before their departure. Williams, currently ISS commander, will relinquish command to a Crew-10 member.
The return mission follows a highly publicized intervention by former President Donald Trump, who appealed to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to rescue the astronauts. Trump’s statement on Truth Social urged immediate action, criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of the situation. SpaceX, a major NASA contractor under the Commercial Crew Program, developed the Crew Dragon capsule used for the rescue, leveraging approximately $3 billion in NASA funding.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich emphasized the strong partnership between NASA and SpaceX, highlighting SpaceX’s ability to quickly adapt to unforeseen challenges in human spaceflight. The successful return of Williams and Wilmore underscores this collaborative approach and the resilience of human space exploration in the face of unexpected setbacks.
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