It looks like Butch and Suni’s ride home is headed their way.
The two NASA astronauts — Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams — have been stuck on the International Space Station for nearly four months, due to problems with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that had been meant to carry them back to Earth after a mere eight days.
On Saturday, though, a little after 10 a.m. PT, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral carrying the Dragon spacecraft that’s set to eventually bring Wilmore and Williams back to Earth. (The Boeing Starliner returned home without a crew earlier this month, landing in New Mexico on Sept. 6.)
The SpaceX Dragon holds NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Two other crew members were bumped from this mission to leave a pair of seats empty for Butch and Suni’s return journey.
The two are now scheduled to head back to Earth, along with Hague and Gorbunov, in February 2025. In the meantime, they’ll be working on research, maintenance and data analysis, and they also plan to vote from space in the November presidential election.
Neither Wilmore nor Williams seems to have gotten fidgety during their unexpectedly extended stay. “It’s very peaceful up here,” Williams said during a live news conference on Sept. 20, though she did add that the two miss their families back on Earth.
The Dragon is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 2:30 p.m. PT on Sunday, with NASA covering the rendezvous, docking and hatch opening live starting at 1:30 p.m. PT. It’ll also broadcast the crew welcome ceremony once Hague and Gorbunov are on board the space station. You can watch on NASA Plus, on the agency’s website and on a variety of platforms, including YouTube.
“This mission required a lot of operational and planning flexibility. I congratulate the entire team on a successful launch today, and godspeed to Nick and Aleksandr as they make their way to the space station,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a press release Saturday.
“Our NASA wizards and our commercial and international partners have shown once again the success that comes from working together and adapting to changing circumstances without sacrificing the safe and professional operations of the International Space Station.”
