NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have returned to Earth safely after a nine-month long mission on the International Space Station (ISS). The duo, who were aboard SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, landed off the coast of Florida at 3:27 AM IST, in a Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk praised both SpaceX and NASA teams for a safe return, while also thanking former US President Donald Trump for prioritizing the mission.
In a recent interview with Fox News, Musk claimed that SpaceX had given the Biden administration an earlier chance to bring back the astronauts but that the offer was allegedly declined for political reasons. “We certainly offered to bring the astronauts back earlier. They were only originally supposed to be up there for eight days but were there for nearly 10 months. It doesn’t make any sense,” Musk explained, adding that the astronauts could have been brought back a lot sooner.
Earlier this year, Musk revealed that Trump requested his assistance in facilitating the return of two astronauts on the Boeing Starliner mission, who have been on the ISS since June 2024. Musk criticized the Biden administration for leaving the astronauts in space for such a long time, describing the experience as “terrible.”
Trump backed Musk’s claims in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, stating he had urged SpaceX to “go get” the astronauts, whom he claimed were “virtually abandoned” by the current administration.
Williams and Wilmore initially launched on NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test on June 5 last year. Their eight-day mission was aborted on approach to the ISS when technical issues, including helium leaks and thruster failures, forced the crewed Starliner to abort the mission and return to Earth without them.
NASA reassigned Williams and Wilmore to the SpaceX Crew-9 mission in August, reducing the crew complement from four to two, so that it had to drop previously assigned astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson.
Upon return, the Crew-9 crew completed a 17-hour journey, with the spacecraft ejecting its parachute before landing in the ocean. A NASA team was on hand to assist the astronauts as they left the capsule. Williams was spotted waving and making thumbs-up signs on the way out.
When asked on X (formerly Twitter) whether the astronauts would have a special meal prepared for them upon their return, NASA responded that the Crew-9 crew would undergo thorough medical checkups before being presented with fresh food and that food in space is never normally fancy, especially upon readjusting to gravity.
