NASA astronauts gearing up for next step of return mission following nine months in space

NASA’s Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are getting ready to meet with their families after they undergo medical checks.

The space agency said the crew was ‘looking healthy’ as they emerged from the SpaceX capsule following the 17-hour journey through space.

The crew splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean at 5:57pm, along with NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Aleksandr Gorbunov who were also inside the capsule.

Tuesday’s return marks the end of Wiliams and Wilmore’s nine-month grueling mission, which was caused by Boeing’s Starliner capsule malfunctioning after they launched in June 2024.

DailyMail.com asked Joel Montalbano, an official from NASA’s space operations mission directorate, to comment on Butch Wilmore’s daughter saying ‘politics’ left her father stranded.

Wilmore’s daughter, Daryn, shared videos on TikTok about her father being stuck in space.

‘There’s a lot of politics, there’s a lot of things that I’m not at liberty to say, and that I don’t know fully about,’ Daryn said in a February video.

Montalbano told DailyMail.com in a press briefing: ‘I wasn’t involved in any conversations with the previous administration.’

He added NASA fulfilled a request from the current administration.

‘The results you saw were the results you saw today,’ Montalbano concluded.

NASA is hosting a press conference following the astronauts’ return Tuesday.

Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said the agency plans to work with Boeing to get its Starliner craft up to standard.

Boeing developed the Starliner capsule that left Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore stranded on the International Space Station (ISS).

Starliner was plagued with issues before and after launching the crew to the ISS.

NASA deemed it unsafe and brought the capsule home in September, leaving Williams and Wilmore in space.

Stich stressed the importance of having at least two companies sending astronauts to space.

Teams plan to replace the faulty thrusters and conduct more tests on the capsule this summer.

NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro welcomed Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore home on Tuesday while admitting President Donald Trump’s direction helped with the early return.

‘Per President Trump’s direction, NASA and SpaceX worked diligently to pull the schedule a month earlier,’ Petro said.

‘This international crew and our teams on the ground embraced the Trump Administration’s challenge of an updated, and somewhat unique, mission plan, to bring our crew home.’

Trump tapped Elon Musk in January to ‘go get’ them after he claimed the Biden Administration abandoned Williams and Wilmore.

The White House posted on X Tuesday evening, saying President Donald Trump was the reason Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have returned from their more than nine-month

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have emerged from the capsule, laid on stretchers and are heading to medical for routine health checks.

The crew is set to see their family in a few hours.

The hatch of the capsule was opened, showing the smiling faces of NASA’s Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore and Nick Hague and Russia’s Aleksandr Gorbunov.

The crew is now minutes away from leaving the capsule following the 17-hour journey from the International Space Station.

This is the first time in nine months that Williams and Wilmore have breathed in air on Earth.

Dolphins were spotted meeting the capsule and the recovery team off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida around 6:15pm ET.

About three dolphins were seen swimming in the area.

The recovery vessel is moving closer to the capsule housing Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore. The grounds team said the capsule will be lifted out of the water in five minutes.

The crew is gearing up to leave the capsule following a 17-hour journey to Earth.

After the capsule is secured, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will emerge from the spacecraft, placed on stretchers and taken to NASA’s medical team for health checks.

Williams and Wilmore will not be able to walk on their own for days, maybe weeks, after their more than nine-month stay on the International Space Station.

However, it is the protocol for all astronauts returning to space to be placed on stretchers after returning to Earth. That is because they are feeling gravity for the first time in months.

NASA’s stranded astronauts have finally come home.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore splashed down off the coast of Florida at 5:57pm ET after spending more than nine months on the International Space Station.

The SpaceX capsule opened four parachutes as the capsule shot through Earth’s atmosphere, carrying the crew to the ocean.

The grounds team erupted in cheers as the capsule touched the water.

The recovery ship that pulls the capsule out of the water will take about half an hour to arrive. But first, smaller fast boats are already at the scene inspect the capsule and retrieve its parachutes.

NASA captured the first views of the SpaceX capsule reentering the atmosphere.

The crew is in a blackout period as they begin reentering Earth’s atmosphere. While it may sound terrifying, this is part of the deorbit sequence.

All communications are temporarily disrupted by a plasma layer forming around the capsule by the intense heat of atmospheric friction.

The ‘reentry blackout’ should last for about seven minutes.

NASA has kicked on a live stream for today’s return of Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, showing the crew strapped in their seats moments before splashdown.

NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Aleksandr Gorbunov are also inside the SpaceX capsule.

The ground team announced the deorbit sequence had begun.

This includes a series of maneuvers and actions to help the capsule re-enter Earth’s atmosphere safely.

Stranded NASA astronaut Barry ‘Butch’ WIlliams is just hours from being back on solid ground.

During the nine-month space drama, his daughter Daryn, 19, has gained a major following on TikTok after she started discussing her father being stuck on the International Space Station.

Tuesday afternoon Daryn posted what she called her final video while her dad is stranded in space.

The 19-year-old said she had been overwhelmed with questions and wanted to answer everything in one single post.

The teen confirmed that the astronaut’s family will be present at mission control Tuesday evening and Wilmore is expected to reunite with his loved ones around 1am ET Wednesday morning.

Daryn said there would be no party after her father’s safe return, noting that both Wilmore and Suni Williams will be undergoing medical tests for several days following their return.

However, the rising TikTok star did say that the astronauts’ story is definitely worthy of a Hollywood movie.

The teen daughter of stranded NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore hit back at critics who blamed President Donald trump for her father’s extended stay in space.

A TikTok user told Daryn, 19, she should ‘blame Trump’ for her dad’s extended stay on the International Space Station (ISS), to which the astronaut’s daughter responded: ‘It’s not Trump’s fault a rocket didn’t work.’

Daryn, her sister, and their mother are patiently waiting for the return of her father who was stuck in space for more than nine months.

The video came just weeks before Elon Musk said the Biden administration left them in space for ‘political reasons.’

During a February appearance the Joe Rogan Experience, Musk claimed he offered to bring the pair home eight months ago, but the Biden Administration shot it down because it would have made Trump ‘look good’ in the presidential race against Kamala Harris.

Danish adventurer and financier Per Wimmer shared what stranded NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch WIlmore may experience once they land back on Earth.

Wimmer is waiting for his own opportunity to go to space after completing all of the training as one of Virgin Galactic’s ‘Founding Astronauts.’

In an interview with Al Arabiya, Wimmer noted that there could be several rough days right after the two astronauts return to Earth’s gravity.

Wimmer explained that their hearts won’t be used to pumping blood into the upper parts of their bodies – leading to dizziness and nausea.

He also warned that Williams and Wilmore could be a little ‘fragile’ because an astronaut’s muscles and bone structure can become reduced while in zero gravity.

It’s no secret that stranded NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore may need months to physically adjust to life on Earth again.

However, they may also experience an odd mental condition that affects how they view the world and the rest of humanity.

It’s called the ‘overview effect’ and several astronauts have described it as an overwhelming sense of connection to other people and the planet after seeing the Earth from far away.

Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist at Australian National University, told The Guardian: ‘Some people call it a feeling of inspiration. Some people call it feelings of inadequacy in terms of just how big the world is.’

Tucker added that the astronauts will experience a huge psychological transition – going from their inspirational home orbiting the Earth to the chores of everyday life, like making breakfast and commuting to work.

The teen daughter of stranded NASA astronaut Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore has revealed the first thing she plans to do when he returns to Earth on Tuesday.

Daryn, 19, told DailyMail.com that not only is she giving her dad ‘a big ole hug,’ but they are going to eat a pecan pie she baked, saying: ‘It’s his favorite dessert.’

Wilmore’s wife, Deanna, and his two daughters, Daryn and Logan, live in Houston, Texas, where they have been patiently awaiting his return since June of 2024.

‘I’m truly elated and thankful that he’s coming back today, Daryn said.

‘The Lord has blessed us in this time, and we know he’s in control of it.’

The astronauts are putting on their spacesuits to prepare for the Dragon spacecraft to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and splash down in just a few hours, according to the New York Times.

These suits, called ‘launch and entry’ spacesuits, are different from the ones astronauts wear to perform spacewalks on the ISS.

These suits provide added protection during the most dangerous phases of space missions, like when the spacecraft travel through the Earth’s atmosphere, according to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

NASA has just released their splashdown projection for Tuesday’s SpaceX Dragon capsule.

According to the space agency, Crew-9, carrying stranded astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, will be flying north over South America and Mexico before landing in the waters off the Florida coast.

On X, NASA said the space capsule ‘will be difficult to spot in the daytime.’

Crew-9 is scheduled to fly over the Gulf of Mexico – now referred to as the Gulf of America by the US government – between 4:46pm and 4:50pm Central Standard Time (5:50pm ET).

With Daylight Saving Time starting, it’ll be lighter at that point in the early evening, but there’s still a chance you’ll see Suni and Butch coming in for a landing!

Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore’s daughter has just shared a heartwarming video on TikTok celebrating her father’s impending return from space.

19-year-old Daryn, who is a self-proclaimed cosplayer, put on an astronaut costume and danced to Doechii’s ‘Anxiety’ Tuesday afternoon.

Daryn wrote that her celebration ‘seems fitting as MY DAD IS COMING HOME TODAY.’

One person commenting on the new video wrote: ‘Incredibly happy for your family being reunited.’

In a previous video, Daryn noted that she is expected to officially reunite with her father ‘a few hours’ after the SpaceX Dragon capsule lands in the Atlantic Ocean – currently scheduled for 5:57pm ET.

SpaceX owner Elon Musk is ramping up the anticipation for the return of stranded astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.

Just 30 minutes after reposting his comments about the political situation that he believes kept the NASA veterans stuck on the International Space Station, Musk tweeted out a new video of the SpaceX Dragon capsule departing the ISS.

The video, from NASA, shows the moment Williams, Wilmore, and two other astronauts pulled away from the station early Tuesday morning.

SpaceX handled the previous 8 crewed missions to the ISS before Boeing’s Starliner took Williams and Wilmore to the station in June.

Due to severe mechanical issues, that pod left without them, forcing NASA to send a replacement spacecraft to rescue the astronauts – a SpaceX Dragon craft.

SpaceX owner Elon Musk is doubling down on his previous comments about the stranded astronauts, saying on a recent podcast that Joe Biden did not want to allow him to rescue Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.

Talking with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Musk said the Biden White House did not want anyone ‘pro-Trump’ rescuing the stranded astronauts from the International Space Station.

Musk noted that the rescue attempt would have come right before the 2024 election, which Donald Trump won over Kamala Harris anyway.

In the clip that Musk reposted on X Tuesday morning, he added that he believed one of the two NASA astronauts was a Republican and one was a Democrat – but he did not reveal who he believed supported each party.

Although the entire world is waiting for stranded astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to return to Earth, their families are undoubtedly the most excited this day has finally arrived.

Wilmore, a former US Navy captain from Tennessee, is married to his wife, Deanna, and they have two daughters, Daryn and Logan.

Daryn has gained a following on social media after commenting on her father’s situation over the last 9 months.

‘It’s been hard if we’re completely honest,’ she said. Daryn said her frustration about her father’s stay was ‘less the fact that he’s up there’ and ‘more the fact of why.’

Williams, who is also a retired US Navy captain, is married to her husband Michael and the couple lives in Massachusetts.

They also have dogs and enjoy staying active with mechanical projects, including working on cars, airplanes, and even houses.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will face ‘five alarming side effects’ of staying in space for more than nine months.

British astronaut Tim Peake issued the warning, saying the crew will endure hours of exercise to avoid muscle atrophy and brittle bones once they return to Earth.

The European Space Agency astronaut also noted that long periods in space can harm the skin and eyesight, sometimes leading to blood clots.

‘These are relatively new things that we’ve found out,’ he said.

Then there’s ‘the radiation dose, as that’s hard to quantify what the effects will be,’ Peak said, noting that astronauts ‘get the equivalent of eight chest x-rays a day on board the space station.’

NASA and SpaceX are planning for the Dragon capsule carrying stranded astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to begin its deorbit burn at 5:11pm ET tonight.

So, what exactly is a deorbit burn? Simply put, it’s the process of intentionally taking a spacecraft out of its orbit so it can begin its descent back to Earth.

For the SpaceX Dragon capsule, this involves a critical maneuver where the craft’s thrusters fire in a controlled pattern to slow its speed.

Slowing down will drop the capsule out of orbit and into Earth’s atmosphere.

Once the deorbit burn ends, the capsule needs to rely on its heat shields to keep it from burning up in the atmosphere.

From there, the capsule will deploy a set of parachutes which will help it slow down even further as the astronauts approach the ocean.

If everything goes to plan, NASA and SpaceX expect the capsule to safely land in the Atlantic Ocean just before 6pm ET.

Four astronauts, including Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, are on their way back to Earth on board the Crew-9 spacecraft.

SpaceX, the designers of the Dragon capsule, took to X to share some unique view of their space vehicle in flight after it detached from the International Space Station.

You can see the capsule floating freely as it moves away from the station just after 1am ET Tuesday morning.

The astronauts have been in orbit ever since and are scheduled to begin their deorbit Tuesday evening.

SpaceX’s tweet showing ‘Dragon on-orbit shortly after undocking’ has been viewed nearly 400,000 times.

NASA has mapped out the plan for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams’ splashdown in the Atlantic Tuesday evening to the minute!

1:05am ET – The SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying the stranded astronauts, NASA’s Nick Hague, and Russia’s Aleksandr Gorbunov departed the International Space Station and is now orbiting the Earth under its own power.

4:45pm ET – NASA plans to begin its return coverage online.

5:11pm ET – Crew-9 is scheduled to begin its deorbit burn.

5:57pm ET – Crew-9 will splash down in the Atlantic off the coast of Florida.

7:30pm ET – A return-to-Earth media conference is scheduled, featuring officials from both NASA and SpaceX.

Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore is headed back to Earth, and there’s one person in particular who can’t wait to see him – his daughter.

Wilmore’s daughter Daryn, 19, posted a video on TikTok Sunday expressing her anxiousness about the rescue mission to the International Space Station.

Daryn shared a clip of what appears to be her, her mom and her younger sister Logan, 16, watching a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The song ‘Northern Attitude’ by Noah Kahan and Hozier plays over the video, giving it a hopeful atmosphere.

She replied to several comments from viewers, confirming that she’ll be able to finally see her father in person ‘a few hours after’ they splash down in the Atlantic.

Wilmore and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams are expected to land in the ocean just before 6pm ET Tuesday evening.

The two stranded NASA astronauts are finally on the way back home after departing the International Space Station early Tuesday morning.

While their historic space odyssey is coming to an end, the reasons for their nine-month stay on board the ISS are still being fiercely debated here on Earth.

In fact, the problems began before Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore even left on their mission in June 2024 – a trip that was only supposed to last eight days on the ISS.

In 2022, Boeing’s Starliner capsule finally completed its first test flight to the orbital laboratory without humans aboard. However, it would be another two years before Williams and Wilmore would get the green light to head to space.

That’s because of several setbacks both with the rocket and the astronaut’s capsule, costing Boeing both time and money.

Once the mission aboard Starliner took off on June 5, another set of issues with the craft would leave Williams and Wilmore with no way of getting back to Earth.

Hurricane Beryl caused devastation in Houston last July

When Butch Wilmore returns to his home in Houston, he may notice some changes.

Just a month after he departed Earth for the International Space Station in June last year, his home was damaged by Hurricane Beryl which barreled into Texas.

Speaking to a New York Times podcast last month, Wilmore talked about how the challenges he faced in space paled into insignificance compared to those who suffered from natural disasters.

‘This is life-changing in certain respects for us.But it’s nothing compared to the devastation that we have seen take place below us.’

The hurricane damaged his roof with friends and worshippers from his local church helping his wife Deanna with repairs.

The storm resulted in the deaths of 44 people across Texas with power knocked out for millions of people.

Donald Trump has said he looks forward to seeing Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams when they return home following their time in space.

The US President used the Truth Social platform to detail his conversations with NASA’s acting administrator Janet Petro.

The following post was shared on Elon Musk’s X account.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams had been doing scientific research and conducting routine maintenance with the station’s other five astronauts during their nine month stay in space.

Williams had performed two six-hour spacewalks for maintenance outside the ISS, including one with Wilmore.

The ISS, about 254 miles (409 km) in altitude, is a football field-sized research lab that has been housed continuously by international crews of astronauts for nearly 25 years, a key platform of science diplomacy managed primarily by the U.S. and Russia.

Williams told reporters earlier this month that she was looking forward to returning home to see her two dogs and family. ‘It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us,’ she said.

Williams was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998. She had already been a member of two space expeditions in 2006 and 2012 – spending 322 days on the ISS before the Crew-9 mission.

Meanwhile, her Starliner co-pilot Wilmore was also a US Navy captain prior to joining NASA. The 62-year-old spent 178 days in space on two prior missions before getting stranded on board the ISS in 2024.

Left to right: Butch Wilmore, Takuya Onishi, Anne McClain, Kirill Peskov, Nichole Ayers

A SpaceX capsule delivered four astronauts to the International Space Station early on Sunday in a NASA crew-swap mission that will allow stuck astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, to return home after nine months on the orbiting lab.

About 29 hours since launching at 7:03 p.m. ET on Friday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Crew-10 astronauts’ SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule docked to the ISS at 12:04 a.m. ET (0404 GMT) on Sunday.

The Crew-10 mission is a long-awaited first step to bring Wilmore and Williams back to Earth – part of a plan set by NASA last year that has been given greater urgency by President Donald Trump since he took office in January.

The four-person crew, scheduled to stay on the station for roughly six months, includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

The swap mission became entangled in politics as Trump and his adviser Elon Musk, who is also SpaceX’s CEO, urged a quicker Crew-10 launch. They claimed, without evidence, that Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden had abandoned Wilmore and Williams on the station for political reasons.

Upon splashing down, Wilmore and Williams will have logged 286 days in space – longer than the average six-month ISS mission length, but far short of U.S. record holder Frank Rubio.

His continuous 371 days in space ending in 2023 was the unexpected result of a coolant leak on a Russian spacecraft.

Williams, capping her third spaceflight, will have tallied 608 cumulative days in space, the second most for any U.S. astronaut after Peggy Whitson’s 675 days.

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko set the world record last year at 878 cumulative days.

Rob Navias, from the NASA communications department, said: ‘For the statistical freaks out there, we can tell you that Williams and Wilmore… they will come home with 286 days in space… just to put it into context, not the longest in space history.’

‘It’s not a record-breaking mission.’

NASA’s stranded astronauts will face a long road to recovery after spending more than nine months in space.

Doctors told DailyMail.com that Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will not be able to walk on their own when they return to Earth this month due to living in low gravity.

When the crew emerges from the SpaceX capsule on either March 19 or 20, they will be immediately placed on stretchers and immediately taken for medical evaluations.

Dr Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist and Air Force veteran told DailyMail.com the crew will begin their rehabilitation program the very same day they return to Earth, with the first phase focusing on walking, flexibility and muscle strengthening.

The astronauts could need up to six weeks of rehabilitation to regain their strength, which will include guided exercise and a nutritional plan, he added.

After months of tense anticipation, Sunita Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 1.05am ET (5.05am GMT) on the Dragon spacecraft made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The pair, along with NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Aleksandr Gorbunov, will now make the 17 hour descent back to Earth and, if all goes according to plan, should splash down off the coast of Florida at 5.57pm ET (9.57pm GMT).

‘Crew nine is going home,’ Hague, the commander of departing Crew Dragon, said from the spacecraft moments after they began their journey.

On behalf of crew nine, it was a privilege to call space home… to live and work… in cooperation for the benefit of humanity.

To our colleagues and dear friends who remain on the station, we know the station is in great hands. We’re excited to see what you guys are going to accomplish and we’ll be waiting for ya [sic].

Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Butch Wilmore’s unexpectedly long space mission became a political flashpoint following comments from President Donald Trump and his close advisor, SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk, who both said the Biden administration ‘abandoned’ the Starliner crew in space for ‘political reasons.’

During a February appearance on Joe Rogan ‘s podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience, Musk claimed he offered to bring the pair home eight months ago, but the Biden Administration shot it down because it would have made Trump ‘look good’ in the presidential race against Kamala Harris .

Tonight, Williams and Wilmore plan to return to Earth in SpaceX ‘s Crew-9 Dragon capsule, which is already docked to the ISS.

The pair will be accompanied by NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia ‘s Aleksandr Gorbunov, who flew to the space station in the Crew-9 Dragon in September.

NASA ‘s stranded astronauts are finally on their way home after a brutal nine months in space.

After months of tense anticipation, Sunita Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 1.05am ET (5.05am GMT) on a craft made by Elon Musk ‘s SpaceX .

The pair will now make the 17 hour descent back to Earth and, if all goes according to plan, should splash down off the coast of Florida at roughly 6pm ET (10pm GMT).

The stranded NASA astronauts, Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Butch Wilmore, will begin the process of traveling back to earth by ‘undocking’ from the International Space Station.

If all goes according to plan, the pair will splashdown off the Gulf Coast of Florida just shy of 6pm ET Tuesday.

Health experts have already noticed physical signs of deterioration Williams and Wilmore, including rapid weight loss. When they splash down on Tuesday, the frail duo will be placed on stretches and immediately taken for medical evaluations.

Dr Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist and Air Force veteran said the astronauts could need up to six weeks of rehabilitation to regain their strength, which will include guided exercise and a nutritional plan.

The crew will begin their rehabilitation program the very same day they return to Earth, with the first phase focusing on walking, flexibility and muscle strengthening.

Who are Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Butch Wilmore, the pair of NASA astronauts stranded in space for nine months?

First, let’s look at how the journey began. The two were chosen as part of NASA’s 2015 effort to start sending American astronauts into space from rockets launching on US soil – something that hadn’t happened since NASA retired the space shuttle program in 2011.

The first eight missions used SpaceX rockets and crew capsules, but the Crew-9 mission carrying Williams and Wilmore was the first to use Boeing’s Starliner – and that’s where the trouble started.

Numerous technical issues with Boeing’s Starliner, including thruster failures and helium leaks, drove NASA to send the capsule home without its crew. Williams and Wilmore were stranded in space since June 2024.

However, a long trip to space was nothing new for Williams and Wilmore, two NASA veterans with a wealth of experience between them.

Suni Williams was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1998. She had already been a member of two space expeditions in 2006 and 2012 – spending 322 days on the ISS before the Crew-9 mission.

Meanwhile, her Starliner co-pilot Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore was also a US Navy captain prior to joining NASA. The 62-year-old spent 178 days in space on two prior missions before getting stranded on board the ISS in 2024.

Here’s what to expect from NASA astronauts Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Butch Wilmore return to Earth after being stranded in space for nine months:

10:45pm Monday: NASA will begin streaming a live feed of Williams and Wilmore boarding the Crew Dragon spacecraft, closing the hatch in hopes of beginning their departure.

1:05am Tuesday: Williams and Willmore will start to un-dock from the space station, heading toward earth.

5:57pm Tuesday: The capsule carrying Williams and Wilmore is scheduled to splash down off the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Shortly after: The vehicle will be recovered in the water and crews will escort the pair onto a ship.

Williams and Wilmore will then be flown to the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The entire crew returning NASA astronauts Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Butch Wilmore to earth has just gotten onto the capsule that will get them home.

NASA has said that all systems are working on the spacecraft and they have pleasant weather for a smooth splashdown Tuesday evening.

The quartet of astronauts of Crew-9 posed for a group picture before the hatch closed on the Crew Dragon.

At around 1am ET, the spacecraft will un-dock from the International Space Station.