This image taken from NASA video shows the SpaceX capsule carrying NASA astronauts Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore and Nick Hague, and Russian astronaut Alexander Gorbunov, undocking from the International Space Station on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (NASA)
The two American astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were scheduled for a nine-day mission but ended up spending more than nine months in space, are finally returning to Earth. At 13:05 Beijing time on Tuesday, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying the two astronauts undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and began its journey home, the Xinhua News Agency reported. The spacecraft is expected to splash down in waters near Florida early Wednesday morning Beijing time.
According to Xinhua, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft arrived at the ISS on Sunday. This mission, designated Crew-10, marks the 10th time the crewed Dragon spacecraft has transported rotating astronauts to the ISS. As part of the rotation, four astronauts from the US, Russia, and Japan replaced the four outgoing crew members aboard the ISS—including Wilmore and Williams, the two American astronauts who had been stranded in space for over nine months.
Wilmore and Williams' homecoming caps an end to a drawn-out mission filled with uncertainty and technical troubles that have turned a rare case of NASA's contingency planning - as well as failures of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft - into a global and political spectacle, Reuters reported.
According to CNBC, Wilmore and Williams left Earth in June 2024 on a test flight that was originally intended to last about nine days. But their stay was extended after thrusters on Boeing's Starliner capsule "Calypso" failed during docking, raising concerns about the ship's ability to carry them home. NASA ultimately decided to send the Starliner back empty after three months at the ISS and arranged for the astronauts to return via a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft instead.
The astronauts will be flown to their crew quarters at the space agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston for several days of health checks, per routine for astronaut returns, before NASA flight surgeons approve they can go home to their families, Reuters reported.
Pang Zhihao, a Beijing-based senior space expert, told the Global Times that after returning from space, astronauts will undergo health examinations focusing on the skeletal and muscular system, the cardiovascular system, the immune system and the nervous system.
"Extended exposure to microgravity leads to muscle atrophy and bone density loss. While astronauts follow a strict exercise regimen to counteract these effects, exercise alone is insufficient. To mitigate these risks, they also take medications and nutritional supplements," Pang explained.
Pangs noted that the microgravity environment will also change the human body's blood distribution, leading to adaptive changes in cardiovascular function. And the space environment may weaken the immune system, reducing resistance to infections.
"Astronauts often undergo psychological counseling upon their return, as prolonged isolation in space can lead to feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and stress. Professional psychologists conduct assessments and provide necessary support to facilitate their mental readjustment to life on Earth," Pang said.
CNN reported that the length of the two astronauts' stay in space is not record-breaking as Williams and Wilmore's extended mission is 286 days. According to Xinhua, the world record for the longest continuous stay on a space station is held by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who remained in orbit for 437 consecutive days from January 1994 to March 1995.
Although Wilmore and Williams did not break the world record for the longest continuous stay on the ISS, they have undoubtedly set the record for the longest involuntary stay on the space station, Xinhua reported.
