CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — After a weeklong trip turned into a nine-month stay aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are finally coming home.
The pair may leave the station as early as Sunday, weather permitting, and if their replacements arrive as scheduled.
Crew-10, composed of Spokane’s Anne McClain, fellow NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, will relieve the pair of their duties. The space agency is targeting a Wednesday launch at 4:48 p.m. Pacific.
“This is a huge mission for us on Crew-10,” said Steve Stitch, manager of the commercial crew program. “They’re all big, but it started all the way back to Crew-9, when we launched that mission with two empty seats. We had those seats reserved for Butch and Suni.”
Wilmore and Williams arrived on the space station last June on the first crewed test flight aboard the Boeing Starliner expecting to stay between eight to 10 days.
But concerns around the craft’s safety led space agency officials to make the decision to roll the two into regular operations aboard the orbiting laboratory. They became full-fledged members of Crew-9, joined by NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov in September.
Hague will return with Wilmore and Williams.
As their extended stay has dragged on, the narrative the pair were “stranded,” “stuck” and “abandoned” grew. Wilmore and Williams found themselves in the middle of political disputes taking place 250 miles below their feet, as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump claimed former President Joe Biden’s administration denied Musk’s offers to return the astronauts “for political reasons,” while Trump claimed his predecessor was going to abandon them in space.
Musk has also claimed the launch of Crew-10, scheduled for late March, was moved up a few weeks at Trump’s request. Stitch said that’s not the case.
Crew-10 was planning to arrive in February aboard a new SpaceX Dragon capsule, but technical concerns with the craft led the space agency to decide to delay the mission and swap the top of the rocket for a previously flown capsule, “Endurance.”
“I can verify that Steve has been talking about how we might need to juggle the flights and switch capsules a good month before there was any discussion outside of NASA,” said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of NASA’s space operations mission directorate.
“But the president’s interest sure added energy to the conversation,” he added.
He said the decision to roll Williams and Wilmore into Crew-9 was made by the subject matter experts at the commercial crew and ISS program level, not at a higher level like the White House.
“That’s typically the way our decisions work,” Bowersox said.
Since entering the political realm, Musk has shown a pension for conflict.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO called European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen a derogatory slur and an “idiot” on his social media platform X, after Mogensen posted in response to Musk reiterating his claims of political abandonment in an interview with Fox News.
“What a lie,” Mogensen wrote. “And from someone who complains about lack of honesty from the mainstream media.”
Mogensen, and several space explorers from around the world, highlighted that the plan for Williams and Wilmore to return with Crew-9 has been in place since September — during the Biden administration.
Musk publicly doubled down by going after decorated, retired NASA astronaut Scott Kelly after he criticized Musk for attacking Mogensen.
“I was Commander of the @ISS when Andy, @Astro_Andreas flew his first space mission,” Kelly posted. “He is one of the most competent, trustworthy, and honest people I’ve ever met. This rhetoric is beyond the pale but, sadly, not surprising. He does not deserve this kind of disrespect.”
Musk responded by going after Scott Kelly, as well as his twin brother and fellow astronaut, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat of Arizona.
“He is an idiot who publicly attacked me, despite having no idea what ACTUALLY happened,” Musk said on X. “Btw, your brother claims to be independent, but is just a Dem donor shill.”
Mark Kelly responded “Hey @ElonMusk, when you finally get the nerve to climb into a rocket ship, come talk to the three of us.”
In a news conference from the ISS last week, Williams and Wilmore did their best to avoid the political fracas.
Wilmore said he believes Musk made an offer to retrieve them sooner, but acknowledged those decisions are made well above them, and that they were not privy to those conversations. He expressed his appreciation to Musk and Trump for “all that they do for us, for human space flight, for our nation.”
“We know what we’ve lived up here,” Wilmore said. “We know the ins and outs and the specifics that they may not be privy to, and I’m sure that they have some issues that they are dealing with, information that they have that we are not privy to.”
Wilmore said he does not believe politics played into the decision to have them stay aboard the station “at all.”
“We came up prepared to stay long, even though we plan to stay short,” Wilmore said. “That’s what we do in human space flight. That’s what your human space flight program is all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies.”
Williams pushed back against some of Musk’s statements, reiterating as she has for months that the two never felt “stranded.” She expressed disappointment in Musk’s calls to ground the ISS within two years instead of its expected retirement in 2030.
The station has transformed from a few modules to a large hub for innovative research in the 12 years since she was last aboard, and Williams believes abandoning the work prematurely wouldn’t make much sense. This is the third visit for both Wilmore and Williams, who have played instrumental roles in the assembly, operation and maintenance of the ISS.
“We should make the most of this space station for our taxpayers and for all of our international partners, and hold our obligations and do that world -class science that this laboratory is capable of,” Williams said.
For Williams, the hardest part of the experience has been feeling for her loved ones back home, who didn’t have a clear idea of when they might see her again.
“It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us,” Williams said. “You know, we’re here, we have a mission. We’re just doing what we do every day, and every day is interesting because we’re up in space.”
Wilmore said his faith has helped put the extended stay in perspective.
“Some things look to us to be not so good, but it’s all working out for His good, for those that will believe,” he said.
With their return imminent, following two full days of crossover with Crew-10, the veteran astronauts expressed their pleasure in being able to contribute to innovative research, advancing human space flight and the lessons they’re bringing back with them.
Williams said she gets a bit sad when she thinks about how this might be her last voyage, so she tries not to. It’s been “an incredible opportunity,” she said, before teasing that she may leave a personal effect behind so there’s “some hide-and-go-seek for the next guys.”
“Maybe they’ll never find something, I’m not going to tell,” she said with a grin.
“We’re living up here in this very unique place; it gives you an amazing perspective,” Williams said. “Not only out the window, obviously, but also just on how to solve problems. I don’t want to lose that spark of inspiration and that perspective when I leave. So I’m going to have to remodel it somehow.”
Wilmore said he’s looking forward to seeing his family and returning the mementos they gave him. Astronauts wear aviator wings just like other members of the military with a responsibility to the skies, and after a prior mission, he had several sets turned into rings for his father, brother, wife and two daughters.
“A lot of trial and effort, not just me, but by my whole family and others, put a lot into getting those wings, and so they mean a lot,” Wilmore said. “Being able to give those gifts back when we get back is a special thing.”
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