NASA astronauts return from long Space Station stay prompted by Boeing problems

Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore have returned to Earth after a nine-month stay on the International Space Station — a trip that lasted far longer than originally planned thanks to leaks and thruster problems on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they used to get there. Williams and Wilmore splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico in a SpaceX Dragon capsule at 5:57 p.m. ET on Tuesday, after a 17-hour return journey from the ISS. Their return marks the end of one of the stranger chapters in recent spaceflight history, thanks to the problems that Boeing’s Starliner experienced and the way that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has politicized the astronauts’ return. Williams and Wilmore initially launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2024 as part of a mission that was crucial to Boeing’s attempt to compete against SpaceX. The aviation behemoth won a contract alongside SpaceX in 2014 to send astronauts to the ISS for NASA with an eye on eventually carrying them even furt ... Read full article.