"Grinning from ear to ear" Astronauts stranded in space for months - now they're back

Suni Williams and Barry Wilmore were supposed to be on board the ISS for around a week. Due to a mishap, this turned into a good nine months. Now they are back home - and "grinning from ear to ear".

Keystone-SDA

19.03.2025, 04:45

19.03.2025, 08:49

SDA

After having to stay on the International Space Station (ISS) for around nine months longer than originally planned due to a spacecraft malfunction, two US astronauts are back on Earth. Williams and Barry Wilmore landed in a Crew Dragon space capsule from Elon Musk's space company SpaceX in the ocean off the coast of the US state of Florida, as live images from the US space agency Nasa showed.

"What a trip," replied US astronaut Nick Hague, who, like Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, was also in the capsule and acted as commander of the so-called "Crew 9". "I see a capsule full of grins from ear to ear." The landing was "beautiful", said Nasa manager Joel Montalbano. "It's great to have Crew 9 back home."

Smile, wave, thumbs up

Around 17 hours earlier, the capsule named "Freedom", manufactured by tech billionaire Elon Musk's space company SpaceX, had undocked from the ISS. After the flight, it landed - slowed down by parachutes - in blue skies and bright sunshine in the sea near the city of Tallahassee. Shortly afterwards, dolphins swam around the capsule, which was finally transported away by ship.

On the ship, the four space travelers were taken out of the "Crew Dragon": first Hague, then Gorbunov, then Williams and finally Wilmore - all smiling, waving and with their thumbs up. They were then to be medically examined and flown back to Houston.

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One week in space turned into nine months

Williams and Wilmore had arrived at the ISS at the beginning of June and were only supposed to stay there for around a week. However, due to technical problems with their "Starliner" spacecraft, NASA decided for safety reasons to let the spacecraft, developed by the US company Boeing, fly back to Earth empty. In September, only two instead of the originally planned four space travelers, Hague and Gorbunov, flew to the ISS in a "Crew Dragon" - leaving two places free for Williams and Wilmore.

900 hours of research

The 59-year-old Williams and her 62-year-old colleague Wilmore had been in space several times before. They are considered experienced astronauts. In the case of Hague and Gorbunov, it was planned from the outset that they would remain on the space station for six months. According to Nasa, Williams and Wilmore ended up spending 286 days. Crew 9 invested a total of 900 hours in research on board the ISS, conducting 150 scientific experiments.

The rescheduling required some of the trickiest decisions in the history of Nasa: in addition to the astronauts' safety as the top priority, it also had to be taken into account that they would consume additional supplies such as food and hygiene articles on board the ISS. They were also exposed to more radiation than originally estimated due to the extended stay.

"Celebrating for quite a while"

The future of the crisis-ridden Starliner spacecraft remains uncertain - even though NASA continues to emphasize that another transport system is desired as an alternative to the Crew Dragon. Williams and Wilmore had never flown with a Crew Dragon before - and now had to complete the corresponding landing training in a modified form before the return flight on board the ISS.

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The two were "very resilient the whole time", said Nasa manager Steve Stich at a press conference shortly after landing. "They became part of the ISS seamlessly." He also expressly thanked the families of the two astronauts once again. "I'm sure their reunion will be wonderful." Nasa will also be celebrating the safe return of the two astronauts "for quite a while".