By Micah Maidenberg

Butch and Suni are ready to come home.

The NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who often go by their nicknames, are poised to fly back to Earth after spending almost nine months aboard the International Space Station -- far longer than the roughly weeklong stay NASA planned.

Wilmore and Williams were thrust into a messy debate at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration last summer about how to safely transport both back to ground. Both traveled to the space station in early June on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, a vehicle that ran into technical problems while delivering them to the orbital research lab.

After those issues emerged, officials at NASA debated for weeks about whether to use Starliner to bring them back to Earth. The agency ultimately decided to extend their stay on the ISS and have them fly home on a SpaceX vehicle that was already scheduled to travel to the station as part of the facility's regular rotation of crew members.

Wilmore and Williams, veteran military pilots and astronauts who had flown to the ISS before, have said they were always ready for curveballs during their mission.

"We came up prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short, " Wilmore said Tuesday during a briefing. "That's what your nation's human space flight program is all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies."

On March 12, SpaceX is set to launch four other people to the facility. A few days after their arrival, Wilmore and Williams, along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, will board a SpaceX vehicle that docked to the station last September for their return flight.

Williams said during the briefing Tuesday that the most difficult part of the situation is for family members and other supporters anticipating their return.

"It's been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us," she said. "I think the hardest part is having the folks on the ground have to not know exactly when we're coming back."

Since NASA leaders confirmed their extended stay, Wilmore and Williams have kept busy on the ISS by participating in research projects and helping to maintain the facility, which orbits Earth about 250 miles above the planet.

Crews typically stay on board the station, which receives regular replenishments of food and other supplies, for around six months. Longer visits aren't unknown. Frank Rubio, a NASA astronaut, returned to Earth from the facility about 18 months ago after spending more than a year in orbit.

Last month, during an interview with Fox News, President Trump and Elon Musk, who serves as chief executive of SpaceX in addition to his roles advising the president and leading other companies, alleged the Biden administration left Williams and Wilmore in orbit due to politics.

Bill Nelson, the agency's former top leader, has said politics played no role in the decision-making around the situation with the two astronauts. Current officials at NASA have said that they chose to keep the duo on ISS because of the technical problems with Starliner and to keep the station's crew rotation schedule intact.

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, meanwhile, was able to successfully return to Earth empty, but its future is unclear. The aerospace giant, which believed Starliner was safe enough to transport Wilmore and Williams back home, has considered selling civil-space programs, including Starliner

The vehicle still hasn't been certified for regular astronaut flights. In January, Boeing recorded another financial loss related to the vehicle.

Write to Micah Maidenberg at micah.maidenberg@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 04, 2025 15:18 ET (20:18 GMT)

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