The pair of Boeing Starliner astronauts left behind on the International Space Station are finally on their way back to Earth after a planned eight-day trip turned into more than 9 1/2 months in space.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who arrived aboard Starliner as part of its Crew Flight Test last June, began their trip home early Tuesday instead in a SpaceX Crew Dragon.
The duo are now part of the Crew-9 mission and flying home with commander Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who arrived last September in the Crew Dragon Freedom with only two crew instead of the normal four so that Williams and Wilmore had space for the flight back.
The hatch on Freedom closed at 11:05 p.m. Monday with undocking at 1:05 a.m. Tuesday.
“On behalf of Crew-9 I’d like to say it was a privilege to call station home, to live and work and be a part of our mission and a team that spans the globe working together in cooperation for the benefit of humanity,” Hague said as the spacecraft inched away from the station. “We know the station’s in great hands. We’re excited to see what you guys are going to accomplish, and we’ll be waiting for you. Crew 9’s going home.”
NASA’s Anne McClain, commander of the Crew-10 mission that arrived to the station two days ago opening the door for Crew-9’s exit, confirmed the spacecraft’s safe departure.
“To Crew-9, safe journey home. It’s been the honor of a lifetime to cross your path up here on space station,” she said. “Your service has been very much appreciated, and we’ll miss you, but have a great journey home.”
Fellow Crew-10 member, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi, who will take over command of the station next month added, “I wish we could spend more time with you guys, but many people who love you and whom you love are waiting for you, so safe travels. Godspeed.”
The Crew-9 quartet now have a 17-hour flight home with a deorbit burn scheduled for 5:11 p.m. after which the capsule will slow for its parachute-assisted landing aiming for a splashdown off of Florida’s Gulf Coast landing at 5:57 p.m.
Williams and Wilmore, once they arrive back to Earth, will have spent 286 days in space while Hague and Gorbunov will have spent 171 days in space.
Starliner launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on June 5, 2024 docking with the space station one day later. It was Starliner’s first human spaceflight coming more than four years after SpaceX accomplished the same feat with its Crew Dragon.
The spacecraft, though, suffered thruster failures and helium leaks on the flight up, which ultimately led to NASA choosing to keep Williams and Wilmore safe on the station instead of flying home on board Starliner.
Starliner made it home safe, while its passengers remained on the station becoming part of the Expedition 72 crew, and officially part of Crew-9 once the Crew Dragon Freedom arrived.
This completes their third trip to space, with each having previously flown to the space station on board both the space shuttle and Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The duo’s flights on four different spacecraft matches a feat only achieved by Orlando’s John Young, who flew on the space shuttle, Gemini, Apollo command module and Apollo lunar module spacecraft.
The plight of the Starliner duo had become a political talking point after Elon Musk and President Trump called out the Biden administration for keeping them up at the station instead of sending up a rescue mission.
It became amplified once SpaceX failed to get a new Crew Dragon spacecraft ready in time for what was supposed to be a February flight up to the station for Crew-10
Facing further delays, SpaceX and NASA opted to switch out to the Crew Dragon Endurance, which had been prepped for the commercial Axiom Space Ax-4 mission. The switch allowed for the flight up to the space station earlier this week, pushing up plans by a couple of weeks for the Crew-9 return flight.
The 9 1/2-month stay is not among the longest stays by a NASA astronaut. That title went to Frank Rubio who spent 371 days in space, although his stay was also due to spacecraft issues when he had to wait for a replacement Soyuz rocket to arrive to the station before he could fly home.
Several others had stays that lasted nearly a year including Mark Vande Hei’s 355 days, Scott Kelly’s 340, Christina Koch’s 328 and Peggy Whitson’s 289.
Cosmonaut Valeri Poliyakov spent more than 437 days aboard the Russian space station Mir in the 1990s.