Stuck astronauts return to Earth with SpaceX splashdown after nine months in space

Two NASA astronauts, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, safely splashed down off Florida’s coast after being stranded in space for nine months due to Boeing Starliner malfunctions, concluding a mission that was originally meant to last just eight days

Two NASA astronauts who were stranded in space for a harrowing nine months just splashed down safely off the coast of Florida in an event that was livestreamed by the American space agency.

Sunita “Suni” Williams and Butch Wilmore were only slated to be on the International Space Station for eight days but were stuck there for nine months after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft experienced several malfunctions.

The pair left for the ISS in June 2024 and left for Earth on Tuesday morning at approximately 1:05 a.m. EDT ultimately splashing down at 5:57 p.m. It was slated to take about half an hour for boats to reach the capsule floating in the Atlantic Ocean.

Williams and Wilmore were pictured in the craft alongside NASA astronaut Nick Hague, the mission leader, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. They wore spacesuits and were tightly strapped into the capsule, which was bolted shut from the outside to protect the astronauts inside and prevent water from entering the tight space.

The boat crews worked for nearly a half hour to free the astronauts, who had still not emerged from the craft by about 6:15 p.m. Divers were seen on the outside of the capsule unbolting it as it bobbed about in the ocean.

Why were the astronauts stranded?

Williams and Wilmore worked for over a week to try and fix the issues they were experiencing with the Starliner spacecraft, but they were unable to come up with a solution to their problems.

The craft was deemed unsafe for human travel by NASA, and it left for Earth shortly thereafter without any crew onboard. Williams and Wilmore integrated with the rest of the astronauts on the ISS and became part of the full-time crew onboard.

Since then, the pair have been working away with the rest of the astronauts on the ISS. They’ve slammed claims from President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk that they were stranded aboard the station, however.

“It’s work. It’s fun. It’s been trying at times, no doubt,” Wilmore said in an interview with Michael Barbaro, a host of “The Daily.”

But, she added: “But ‘stranded?’ No. ‘Stuck?’ No. ‘Abandoned?’ No.” Wiliams has logged over 62 hours across nine spacewalks and has etched her name into history books by setting that record for female astronauts.

Both she and Williams took their high-flying aspirations from Navy backgrounds, with Wilmore, who is 62, boasting a history as a football player during his educational years in Tennessee before he started serving in the Navy.