Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore To Return To Earth Early? NASA Shares New Plan

Notably, the development comes after US President Donald Trump asked SpaceX CEO and close ally Elon Musk to bring back Williams and Wilmore back to Earth "as soon as possible". 

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore ahead of an inaugural crewed test flight of Boeing Starliner spacecraft to the ISS.

Source : PTI

US Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stuck in space, are likely to return to Earth sooner than expected. This comes after NASA on Tuesday announced that it will be switching the astronaut capsules with a previously flown SpaceX Crew Dragon for its Crew-10 mission, a move which is likely to allow an early return for the Starliner astronauts.

The US space agency also announced that it was accelerating the target launch and return dates for the upcoming crew rotation missions to and from the International Space Station.

Notably, the development comes after US President Donald Trump asked SpaceX CEO and close ally Elon Musk to bring back Williams and Wilmore back to Earth "as soon as possible". 

Following Trump's demand to Musk, NASA stressed its plans for the astronauts' return, saying that it would do so "as soon as practical".

The launch was previously scheduled for March 25, but has now been moved up to March 12, Wednesday. However, it is "pending mission readiness and completion of the agency's certification of flight readiness process," NASA said in its statement.

"After Crew-10 arrives to the space station, Crew-9 will help the newly arrived crew familiarize with ongoing science and station maintenance work, which supports a safer transition of operations aboard the orbital complex," the space agency said.

NASA further said that it will prepare for the return of its astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard Crew-9 after the handover.

The US space body said that the mission management teams have decided to use an already flown SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule called 'Endurance' instead of a new one as its production has apparently been delayed.

"Teams will work to complete Dragon’s refurbishment and ready the spacecraft for flight, which includes trunk stack, propellant load, and transportation to SpaceX’s hangar at 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to be mated with the mission’s Falcon 9 rocket," NASA's statement said.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore had flown off to the space station on Boeing's Starliner capsule in June 2024. However, their return got delayed by over nine months after the aircraft was affected by multiple snags, including a helium leak. Since then the two NASA astronauts have been stuck at the space station, with Williams taking charge of the ISS.

The change will enable SpaceX to complete the new spacecrafts interior build and carry out integration activities in the final stage while also launching the Crew-10 and returning Crew-9 sooner.

The Crew-10 mission will carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain, commander and Nichole Ayers, pilot JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, mission specialist; and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, mission specialist to the space station.