NASA Astronauts Return Home After Extended Stay on ISS

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NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita Williams, along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, are set to splash down off the Florida coast after a historic nine-month mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS). They are expected to return just before 6 PM ET on March 18, 2025, following a deorbit burn that confirmed their trajectory for re-entry, according to NASA's live coverage.

Wilmore and Williams were originally scheduled for a standard eight-day mission but remained on the ISS due to issues with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft during its first crewed flight. NASA opted to bring the astronauts back via SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule instead, citing "too much uncertainty" regarding the Starliner’s propulsion systems, which had experienced failures during the mission.

Their prolonged stay became a topic of political discourse, with Elon Musk controversially asserting they had been “abandoned” in space by the Biden administration, a claim both astronauts later clarified as unfounded. The return marks the conclusion of an extended, successful mission still essential for space exploration advancements.

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