Countdown to Splashdown: Sunita Williams' 9-Month Space Odyssey Nears End

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams are scheduled to come back to Earth on Tuesday, March 18, 2025, following a surprise nine-month sojourn on the International Space Station (ISS). Their return trip home in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule concludes an extended mission that started in June 2024.

 

Important facts:

 

 

Extended mission caused by technical problems with their original Boeing Starliner spacecraft. Though excited to be returning, the astronauts may also suffer from some physical issues such as bone density loss and loss of ability to walk.

 

Williams had ambivalent feelings about departing, answering, "Everything" when asked what she would most miss about space, reflecting on the special vantage point experienced on her third ISS mission.

 

Sources: Hindustan Times, NASA release, March 17, 2025