NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams safely return to Earth after spending nine months in space

No more orbiting in space, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams returned to Earth on Tuesday (March 18 2025) after a second return trip to end the story that started with a disastrous test flight nine months ago.

Their SpaceX capsule fell in The Gulf of Mexico in the early evening, hours after leaving their departure from the International Space Station. The splashdown took place near the coast of Tallahassee within the Florida Panhandle, bringing their adventure that was not planned to ending.

Within a matter of hours they were getting out of their spacecrafts with their arms raised and smiling at the cameras, while being transported in stretchers with reclining seats for routine medical check-ups.

The story began with a faulty Boeing test flight that took place last spring.

The two were expected to depart within one week after the launch of Boeing's brand new Starliner Crew capsule in June. Many issues arose during the journey into space that NASA ultimately returned Starliner back empty and handed over the pilots in the test to SpaceX and delayed their return to February. Then SpaceX capsule problems delayed the launch by another month.

The arrival of their replacement crew meant that Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams might finally be able to depart. NASA let them go slightly early, considering the weather forecast for in the coming weeks. They left along with NASA's Nick Hague and Russia's Alexander Gorbunov who landed on their very own SpaceX capsule last fall, with two seats left empty for the Starliner pair.

Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams have spent an average of 286 space days278 days longer than what they anticipated when they began their mission. They went around Earth 4,766 times and traveled more than 121 millions miles (195 million kilometers) before the splashdown.