NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stranded in space for the past eight months due to technical issues with their spacecraft, are likely to return home next month.
As per media reports, the astronauts stated in an interview that NASA’s Crew-10 mission is set to launch on March 12, with their return scheduled for March 19.
The Crew-10 mission will carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, to the International Space Station (ISS) for a six-month stay.
After Crew-10 reaches the International Space Station, a week-long handover process will begin. Sunita Williams, who is currently the Space Station Commander, will transfer command before preparing to return. The departing astronauts will then board the Dragon spacecraft used by Crew-10 and undock from the station on March 19.
“The plan is that Crew-10 will launch on March 12, do a turnover for a week, and we will return on March 19,” Wilmore told to the media.
said Thursday they are not “stranded” in low-Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station, and that they don’t feel “stuck” or “abandoned” either.
‘Not Stranded, Not Stuck, Not Abandoned’
Williams and Wilmore clarified that they are not “stranded” aboard the International Space Station. They emphasized that they do not feel “stuck” or “abandoned,” countering claims made by US President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk regarding delays in their return mission.
“That’s been the rhetoric. That’s been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck — and I get it. We both get it… But that is, again, not what our human spaceflight program is about,” Wilmore said. He urged for a shift in the conversation, saying, “Help us change the narrative. Let’s change it to ‘prepared and committed.’ That’s what we prefer.”
Williams supported Wilmore’s statement, stating that their extended stay was always a possibility. “We knew that we would probably find some things (wrong with Starliner), and we found some stuff, and so that was not a surprise,” she said.
During her extended mission, Williams, who was appointed as the ISS commander, set a record for the highest total spacewalking time by a female astronaut, logging 62 hours and 6 minutes. The Crew-10 mission is scheduled to bring them back, with their return set for March 19.
Technical issues delayed return
Williams and Wilmore initially flew to the ISS aboard Boeing’s Starliner on June 5, 2024, but technical problems left them unable to return as scheduled.
The issue gained political attention after former US President Donald Trump publicly urged SpaceX’s Elon Musk to intervene, calling for an immediate effort to bring the astronauts home.
“I have just asked Elon Musk and SpaceX to ‘go get’ the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
SpaceX, which developed the Crew Dragon capsule under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, has played a crucial role in ensuring the astronauts’ safe return.
“Human spaceflight is full of unexpected challenges. Our operational flexibility is enabled by the tremendous partnership between NASA and SpaceX and the agility SpaceX continues to demonstrate to safely meet the agency’s emerging needs,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.