After nearly 270 days in space, U.S. astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are finally set to return to Earth aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. The pair initially embarked on an eight-day mission in June 2024 but were left stranded after Boeing’s Starliner capsule suffered technical issues and returned to Earth unmanned.
The prolonged mission has drawn attention to NASA’s reliance on private companies. While SpaceX’s program is operational, Boeing continues to face challenges despite its $4.8 billion contract.
NASA released a video highlighting the astronauts’ extended stay, showcasing their scientific work and spacewalks. Williams and Wilmore will be replaced by a new crew launching on March 12, with Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin taking command of the ISS.
The prolonged mission has drawn attention to NASA’s reliance on private companies. While SpaceX’s program is operational, Boeing continues to face challenges despite its $4.8 billion contract.
NASA released a video highlighting the astronauts’ extended stay, showcasing their scientific work and spacewalks. Williams and Wilmore will be replaced by a new crew launching on March 12, with Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin taking command of the ISS.
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00:00They're going to miss me.
00:02After around 270 days stranded in space, it's almost time for American astronauts Sonny
00:08Williams and Butch Wilmore to come home.
00:12Back in June last year, Williams and Wilmore thought they were heading to the International
00:16Space Station for an eight-day mission.
00:20But the Boeing-manufactured Starliner capsule they were testing suffered technical difficulties
00:25and returned to Earth empty.
00:28Seven months later, they'll finally be returning home aboard one of Elon Musk's SpaceX Dragon
00:34capsules.
00:35The saga has put focus on NASA's decision to rely on private companies.
00:41For more than a decade, the American Space Agency used Russian Soyuz rockets to ferry
00:46astronauts to and from the space station after the US phased out its costly, ill-fated space
00:53shuttle programme.
00:55In 2010, NASA awarded a $3 billion contract to SpaceX and a $4.8 billion contract to Boeing
01:03to design and construct capsules as well as rockets, saying at the time that this could
01:08save up to $30 billion.
01:11A decade later and the SpaceX programme is up and running, while Boeing, whose commercial
01:15airline business has been plagued by problems, still appears to be having teething problems
01:21with its space mission.
01:22And Sonny Williams and Butch Wilmore have become emblems of that failure.
01:27NASA recently released a video in a bid to show their extra time in space was not wasted.
01:33We're constantly doing experiments, we're constantly collecting data, we're constantly
01:38trying to answer questions and usually that leads to more questions.
01:42The focus of the question though is, what happens when you take gravity away?
01:47We've had opportunities to do all sorts of science, spacewalks.
01:52Varied and pretty awesome, actually, opportunity to do something different every single day.
01:58A new crew is due to take off to swap with Williams and Wilmore on a SpaceX rocket on
02:03March the 12th.
02:04Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin will take over command of the space station.
02:10They're going to miss me.
02:11All right, hey, just wanted to say thank you to everybody, to next commander Alexey, thank
02:20you for your, and I promise you, we are actively trying to find the passage back to the place
02:31we were before.
02:33And with that, I will give you the kluch.
02:44Very soon you will leave station.
02:49It was great flying, walking, relaxing together.
02:57I wish you good luck, nominal descent, soft landing and all the best.