Boeing Starliner crew finally returns to Earth aboard SpaceX Dragon

NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, safely returned to Earth on March 18, after a prolonged mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX Dragon Freedom capsule undocked from the ISS at 0505 UTC and splashed down in the Gulf of America off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, at 2157 UTC, completing a 17-hour descent.

Williams and Wilmore, originally part of the Starliner test mission, had their stay extended from the planned eight days to nine months due to technical issues with the Boeing spacecraft.

The splashdown occurred in calm, clear weather, and a pod of dolphins was observed swimming around the capsule, adding a playful note to the event.

Upon splashdown, the capsule was hoisted onto a recovery ship, and the astronauts were safely extracted. They were reported to be in good health and spirits, with Williams and Wilmore expressing gratitude for their safe return.

Following his swearing on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump prioritized the safe return of the Starliner crew, and instructed SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk to bring them home sooner.

Musk said he offered to launch another Dragon to return Williams and Wilmore earlier, but the then President Joe Biden rejected his offer for political reasons, a claim he repeated in Fox News interview, hours after Freedom's splashdown. Biden supported Trump's opponent in the 2024 presidential elections, Kamala Harris.

"We came up prepared to stay long even though we planned to stay short; that is what we do in human spaceflight," Wilmore said, replying to a reporter's question while still on the station.

Starliner's Crew Flight Test and Dragon's Crew-9 marked Williams' and Wilmore's third flight to and from space. On this mission, the two astronauts traveled 195,289,857 kilometers while completing 4,576 trips around Earth in 286 days.