NASA has confirmed that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will return to Earth on Tuesday, March 18, after being on the International Space Station (ISS) for more than nine months. They will be transported home alongside another American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, which arrived at the ISS on Sunday.
The two astronauts had been stranded on the ISS since June last year due to propulsion issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, which was deemed unfit to bring them back to Earth after its maiden crewed mission. Initially scheduled for Wednesday, NASA has advanced their ocean splashdown off the Florida coast to around 5:57 pm on Tuesday (3:27 am IST, March 19) to allow for crew handover tasks and to account for possible adverse weather later in the week.
NASA will provide live coverage of the return, beginning with preparations for the hatch closure of the Dragon spacecraft at 10:45 pm EDT on Monday, March 17 (8:30 am IST on March 18).
