SUNITA WILLIAMS AND BUTCH WILMORE TO RETURN TO EARTH ON THIS DATE, DISMISS ‘STRANDING’ CLAIMS

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been in space for the past eight months due to technical issues with their spacecraft, are finally expected to return home next month.

In an interview with CNN, Williams and Wilmore confirmed that NASA’s Crew-10 mission is scheduled to launch from Earth on March 12 and bring them back on March 19.

The Crew-10 mission will transport 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 mission.

Once Crew-10 arrives, a week-long handover process will take place before Williams, currently the Space Station Commander, hands over command. The returning astronauts will then board the Dragon spacecraft that brought Crew-10 to space and undock 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 CNN.

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, speaking to CNN journalist Anderson Cooper on Thursday, also said that they are not "stranded" in low-Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station, and that they don't feel "stuck" or "abandoned" either.

The NASA astronauts pushed back against claims by US President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk that they were “abandoned” in space due to 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 echoed Wilmore’s remarks, stating that their prolonged 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,” Williams said.

Williams, who was appointed commander of the ISS during her extended mission, recently broke the record for the highest total spacewalking time by a woman astronaut, logging 62 hours and 6 minutes. The Crew-10 mission is set to bring them home next month, with their return scheduled 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.

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2025-02-14T19:15:52Z