Astronauts Suni Wiliams and Butch Wilmore are finally headed home from the International Space Station after an eight-day mission in June turned into a nine-month stint following technical issues with their spacecraft.
After a crew swap on the weekend, the pair, along with two other astronauts, are getting ready to strap in and take off in a replacement SpaceX capsule bound for Earth.
Follow their take-off from the International Space Station live.
12m agoTue 18 Mar 2025 at 2:22am
After the SpaceX capsule docked with the International Space Station, Sunday, March 16 (AP)
Earlier this week, a capsule by Elon Musk's SpaceX delivered four astronauts to the ISS to deliver a crew-swap allowing the pair to head back to earth.
Twenty-nine hours after launching Friday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule docked to the ISS.
The four newcomers representing the US, Japan and Russia spend the following days learning the station's ins and outs from the two stranded astronauts.
The pair are travelling back to earth in in a capsule that has been attached to the station since September, as part of the prior Crew-9 mission. along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
The SpaceX Dragon capsule will make a fast re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere.
As the craft slows, the astronauts will endure significant g-forces, about four time's the earth's gravity.
Then, four parachutes will open, allowing the craft to land in the ocean, just off the coast of Florida.
18m agoTue 18 Mar 2025 at 2:16am
Good afternoon.
The long-awaited homecoming of stranded astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station is about to finally get underway.
The astronauts were originally scheduled for an eight-day mission, but their return was complicated when the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they were testing was deemed unsafe for the journey home.
Williams and Wilmore are about to strap into the replacement spacecraft taking them and two other crew members back to the US this afternoon.
Stay with us and we live blog preparation and take-off.
Posted 17m ago17 minutes agoTue 18 Mar 2025 at 2:17am