NASA has raised its return flight plan for the SpaceX Crew-9 mission, including a pair of astronauts left on the International Space Station by Boeing’s Starliner.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at the station on June 6, 2024 for what appears to have been as short as their eight-day stay, but are now on board for nine and a half months.
They are currently planning to go home with Commander 9, NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Roscosmos astronaut Alexander Golbunov. The four will board a spaceship late Monday and close from the space station at 1:05am on Tuesday.
The splashdown is scheduled for approximately 17 hours off the coast of Florida at 5:57pm
The quartet’s departure took place about two days after the crew 10 arrived at the station, with the population of the Orbital Science Institute temporarily reaching 11 people. NASA had planned to put out Crew 9 earlier than Wednesday, but is taking advantage of good weather conditions at a major landing site off the Gulf Coast in Florida.
Wilmore and Williams flew as part of a flight test for the Starliner crew, but Starliner suffered from thruster failures and helium leaks in the propulsion system, and eventually NASA sent the spacecraft home without the crew last year.
The remaining Williams and Wilmore were then assigned to stay at the station as part of Expedition 72 and became members of the Crew 9 crew to return home. During his stay, Williams became commander of the space station, with both astronauts taking part in the spaceship.
The duo have completed their third space trip, previously jumping into both the Space Shuttle and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Their flight in the crew’s dragon means they flew on four different spaceships, along with their flight in Starliner.
John Young of Orlando is the only astronaut with a similar resume and flew his first space shuttle flight over two Gemini and two Apollo missions. At Apollo 16, Young was walking the moon, so he flew in both the crew service module and the lunar module. He remains the only astronaut to launch and land on four different spacecraft.
“If you look at it mathematically in terms of the original planning mission percentage, this is the largest extension of the percentage,” said Ken Bowersox, NASA’s Director of Space Operations Missions. “That’s probably the way our engineers think about it in the future.”
He pointed out that other astronauts extended their mission.
“But every astronaut who sets out into space, we tell them: “Don’t think about when you’re going home. Think about how well your mission is, and if you’re lucky, you might stay longer.” And when you can stay in space longer, it’s a real gift,” he said.
Original issue: March 17, 2025, 6:36am EDT
