Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore launched into space aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5, 2024, with plans to stay at the International Space Station (ISS) for eight days. Shortly after their launch, the astronauts reported a “stable and isolated leak” in their propulsion-related plumbing, according to the Associated Press.
While the initial leak remained stable throughout their journey to the ISS, four more leaks emerged, and five thrusters—devices used for acceleration—failed. Despite these issues, Williams and Wilmore were able to safely dock at the ISS, with the understanding that their mission would likely last longer than the originally planned eight days.
Two months after their faulty launch, NASA publicly acknowledged the situation of the two astronauts stuck in space. At the time, the space agency was still assessing whether the Starliner spacecraft would be fit for a return to Earth. Boeing maintained that the spacecraft should be reusable, telling E! News, “If NASA decides to change the mission, we will take the actions necessary to configure Starliner for an uncrewed return.”
Meanwhile, former NASA official Scott Hubbard sought to ease public concern over Wilmore and Williams’ predicament. Speaking to the Associated Press, he emphasized that the astronauts—both of whom had previous spaceflight experience—were only “kind of stuck,” highlighting that they had “plenty of supplies and work to do.”
After NASA confirmed that Williams and Wilmore would return to Earth on a SpaceX mission scheduled for February or March 2025, rather than attempting to fix the Starliner, their families shared their feelings about the extended mission.
Wilmore’s wife, Deanna Wilmore, told WVLT in August, “You just sort of have to roll with it and expect the unexpected.” Meanwhile, Williams’ husband, Michael, told The Wall Street Journal that he didn’t believe his wife would be unsettled by the extended time in space, saying, “That’s her happy place.”
Leading up to their six-month mark in space, Williams and Wilmore shared details about their Thanksgiving meals aboard the ISS. “We have a bunch of food that we’ve packed away that is Thanksgiving-ish,” Williams told NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt on November 27. “Some smoked turkey, some cranberry, apple cobbler, green beans and mushrooms, and mashed potatoes.”
Williams also reassured the public about their well-being during the extended stay. “People are worried about us, really, don’t worry about us,” she said. “We’re feeling good, working out, eating right. We have a lot of fun up here, too.”
In February 2025, President Donald Trump claimed in a Truth Social post that Williams and Wilmore had been “virtually abandoned” in space amid their mission that extended from eight days to eight months. However, the astronauts pushed back on this claim.
“We don’t feel abandoned,” Wilmore told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on February 13. “We don’t feel stuck. We don’t feel stranded. We come prepared. We come committed.” Williams added, “We’re doing pretty darn good, actually. We’ve got food, we’ve got clothes, we have great crew members up here. Of course, it was a little bit longer stay than we had expected, but both of us have trained to live and work on the International Space Station and I think we’ve made the most of it.”
During the interview, the astronauts confirmed that they would be returning to Earth aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, scheduled to launch on March 12. “They’ll come here, rendezvous and dock,” Wilmore explained. “We’ll do a turnover for about a week and we will return on or about the 19th of March.”
Just days before his return, Wilmore’s daughter, Daryn Wilmore, spoke about her father’s time in space and how she felt about the delays. In a March 6 interview with the Daily Mail, she said, “It’s a bit mentally exhausting. There’s been issues. There’s been negligence. And that’s the reason why this has just kept getting delayed. There’s just been issue after issue after issue.” However, she added that her father was “bummed,” but otherwise doing well on the ISS, describing him as “very resilient.”
After an extended nine-month stay in space, Wilmore and Williams safely returned to Earth on March 18, 2025. The astronauts splashed down off the coast of Florida, arriving alongside fellow NASA crew member Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. All were wheeled off the space capsule on stretchers—a standard protocol for returning space travelers who typically cannot walk immediately after landing.
“A lot of them don’t want to be brought out on a stretcher,” former NASA senior scientist John DeWitt told Live Science, “but they’re told they have to be.”
Regarding their first days back on Earth, Wilmore’s daughter Daryn shared insights in a March 18 TikTok video: “He’s going to spend the next few days going in [for] tests—lots of medical stuff because they’re still technically part of the experiment of human space flight. And just get re-acclimated to gravity and the routine back here on Earth, because it’s been very different than these past nine months.”
Following the astronauts’ return, NASA addressed questions about overtime pay. “When NASA astronauts are aboard the International Space Station, they receive regular, 40-hour work-week salaries,” the agency told People magazine. “They do not receive overtime or holiday/weekend pay.” For reference, a regular 40-hour workweek salary for an astronaut ranges from $84,365 to $152,258 according to the federal government’s GS-11 to GS-14 pay scale.
Once Wilmore returned home, daughter Daryn shared her joy at being reunited with her father. “I’m making him his favorite dessert, which is pecan pie,” the college student said in a TikTok video. “I actually have a list that’s all his favorite things and things that we used to do together to hopefully do them these next few days that he’s here before I go back to school, or in the coming months that he’s back.”
https://www.eonline.com/news/1424703/astronauts-return-to-earth-delayed-over-spaceship-damage-concerns?cmpid=rss-syndicate-genericrss-us-top_stories
