The pair of Boeing Starliner astronauts, left at the International Space Station, are finally on their way back to Earth after a planned eight-day trip has been more than nine and a half years in space.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at Starliner as part of a flight test for their crew last June, and were back home early Tuesday with SpaceX crew dragons.
The duo is currently part of the Crew 9 mission and will be home with Commander Nick Hague and Roscosmos Cosmonnaud Alexander Golbunov.
Freedom’s hatch locked at 1:05am on Tuesday and closed at 11:05pm on Monday.
Dragon separation has been confirmed! pic.twitter.com/xjtoqwaslm
– SpaceX (@Spacex) March 18, 2025
“On behalf of the crew, on behalf of the 9, I would like to say it’s a privilege to call the station home, live and work, be a part of our mission and become a team working together to work together for the benefit of humanity,” The Hague said the spacecraft had inched away from the station. “We know that the station is a great hand. We look forward to what you guys are trying to achieve. We are waiting for you. Crew 9 will be back home.”
NASA’s Am McLain, commander of Crew 10 missions, arrived at the station two days ago, opened the door to the exit of Crew 9 to confirm the spacecraft’s safe departure.
“Crew, 9, a safe journey. It was a lifelong honor to cross your path here on the space station,” she said. “Your service is highly appreciated and we will miss you, but there is an amazing journey home.”
Onishi, a member of the 10 crew member, and astronaut of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, is scheduled to take over the command of the station next month.
The Crew 9 Quartet has returned to the 17-hour home where Deorbit Burn is scheduled for 5:11pm. The capsules will then be delayed for a parachute assisted landing, aiming for a splashdown from the Gulf Landing at 5:57pm on the Gulf Landing in Florida.
Returning to Earth, Williams and Wilmore spend 171 days in space and 286 days in space.
The Starliner was released by Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on June 5, 2024, when it was docked to the space station a day later. Starliner’s first human spaceflight came more than four years later, after SpaceX achieved the same feat as IS Crew Dragon.
However, the spacecraft experienced thruster failures and helium leaks during flight, and ultimately, NASA chose to keep Williams and Wilmore safe at the station, rather than boarding the Starliner.
Starliner made it safe at home, but passengers remained at the station, becoming part of the Explorer 72 crew, and after Crew Dragon’s freedom arrived, they became part of the Crew-9.
This completes the third trip to space, each of which has previously flew to the space station on both the space shuttle and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The duo’s flights on four different spacecraft coincides with feats achieved only by John Young of Orlando, who flew to the Space Shuttle, Gemini, Apollo Command Module and Apollo Lner Module spacecraft.
The light-character of the Starliner duo became political buzz after Elon Musk and President Trump cried out that they had kept the Biden administration at the station instead of sending rescue missions.
It was amplified when SpaceX could no longer prepare its new crew dragon spacecraft in time for what appears to be a February flight to the station for its crew 10.
Faced with even more delays, SpaceX and NASA chose to switch to Crew Dragon Endurance, which had been prepared for the Commercial Axiom Space AX-4 mission. The switch allowed flights to the space station earlier this week, and planned for several weeks for nine crew members’ return flights.
9 A 1/2 month stay is not one of the longest stays by NASA astronauts. The title went to Frank Rubio, who spent 371 days in space, but his stay was due to a spaceship issue when he had to wait for a replacement Soyuz rocket to arrive at the station before he could fly home.
Several others lasted nearly a year, including Mark Vande Hay’s 355 days, Scott Kelly’s 340, Christina Koch’s 328, and Peggy Whitson’s 289.
Cosmonaut Valeri Poliyakov spent more than 437 days on the Russian space station Mir in the 1990s.
Original issue: March 17, 2025, 11:04pm EDT
