After Nine Months in Space, the Starliner Astronauts Are Finally Coming Home. Here’s How to Watch Live
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are making a 17-hour journey from the International Space Station and will splash down near Florida this evening
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When astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore launched to the International Space Station (ISS) for a test flight last June, they were expecting to be back on Earth less than ten days later. Instead, after issues with their Boeing Starliner capsule, their days-long journey turned into a nine-month saga. Now, they’re finally coming home.
At 1:05 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday morning, Williams and Wilmore undocked from the ISS on a SpaceX Dragon capsule with two other astronauts. Their spacecraft is expected to splash down off the west coast of Florida just before 6 p.m. this evening. You can follow along with live coverage of the descent on NASA’s stream.
Williams and Wilmore were not stranded on the space station, though the word has been used a lot to describe their fate. NASA decided it would be best for the astronauts to integrate into the Crew-9 mission and for them to return home during the next scheduled crew rotation. There were some delays with the launch of Crew-10—the mission team that would relieve them of their ISS duties—but that spacecraft at last docked with the station just after midnight on Sunday.
The two astronauts kept busy while they were in space. They conducted experiments, did routine maintenance on the ISS and even took spacewalks. Williams set a record for the most time spent spacewalking by a woman over her career.
“I would say it’s work,” Wilmore told Michael Barbaro on a recent episode of “The Daily” podcast from the New York Times. “It’s wonderful enjoyment. It’s been fun. It’s been trying at times, no doubt. But stranded? No. Stuck? No. Abandoned? No.”
“This has been Butch and my third flight to the International Space Station,” Williams said during a press conference from space on March 4, reports CNN. “I think just the fact that we’re living up here in this very unique place gives you an amazing perspective—not only [with the view] out the window, obviously, but also just on how to solve problems, and I don’t want to lose that spark of inspiration.”
So, what’s next for the two astronauts? They will need to spend some time re-adapting to life on Earth, but it won’t be anything too different from most other astronauts returning from the space station.
“There have been many crew members who’ve been on orbit longer than [Williams and Wilmore’s stay], and so we don’t see any need for any special precautions” after splashdown, said Dina Contella, NASA’s deputy manager of the International Space Station program, during a press conference on Friday, per CNN. “Like any astronauts coming back, there’s an acclimation period and so that’ll vary by crew member.”
Upon reaching Earth once again, the two astronauts are also looking forward to reuniting with their families and friends. Wilmore told the Associated Press’ Marcia Dunn that he can’t wait to return to face-to-face ministering at his Baptist church and smelling freshly cut grass. Williams is planning to take long walks with her dogs and go for a swim in the ocean.
Here’s to more relaxing—and grounded—times ahead.
