Sunita Williams Return Date: NASA announces astronauts’ homecoming; Check date, time, live stream & their return details to Earth

Sunita Williams Return Date: The moment we have all been waiting for is finally here. NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stranded at the International Space Station for over nine months, are returning to Earth on March 18, Tuesday evening (GMT). They’ll be joined by Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. The live coverage of their homecoming will start on Monday, March 17 at 10:45 p.m. EDT (around 8:30 am on March 18 in India).

NASA Crew-9 Mission

NASA and SpaceX met on Sunday to assess weather and splashdown conditions off Florida’s coast for the return of the agency’s Crew-9 mission from the International Space Station. Mission managers are targeting an earlier Crew-9 return opportunity based on favorable conditions forecasted for the evening of Tuesday, March 18,” it added.

Crew-9 astronauts to return earlier than planned

According to a NASA statement, the updated return target continues to allow the space station crew members time to complete handover duties while providing operational flexibility before less-favorable weather conditions are expected later in the week.

Mission managers will continue monitoring weather conditions in the area, as Dragon’s undocking relies on several factors, including spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, weather, sea states, and other factors. 

According to the statement, NASA and SpaceX will confirm the specific splashdown location closer to the Crew-9 return.

.@NASA will provide live coverage of Crew-9’s return to Earth from the @Space_Station, beginning with @SpaceX Dragon hatch closure preparations at 10:45pm ET Monday, March 17.

Splashdown is slated for approximately 5:57pm Tuesday, March 18: https://t.co/yABLg20tKX pic.twitter.com/alujSplsHm

— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) March 16, 2025

Elon Musk announces successful docking of SpaceX Dragon at International Space Station

SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov docked with International Space Station, Space X CEO Elon Musk announced on Sunday.

On Friday, SpaceX and NASA launched a mission to bring back US astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore from the ISS, where they have been stranded for nine months. The lift-off took place at 7:03 ET on Friday, with a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon spacecraft on the Crew-10 mission.

Trump urges Musk to rescue stranded astronauts

The launch came after US President Donald Trump urged Elon Musk to rescue the stranded astronauts sooner than NASA had planned. He has repeatedly accused former US President Joe Biden of abandoning them in space.

Wilmore and Williams have been stranded on the ISS for nine months after reaching there in June last year. They were supposed to stay there for about a week. The astronauts were transported from Earth to the ISS aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.

However, the spacecraft came back to Earth unmanned in September. This came after NASA and Boeing identified “helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters” on June 6 as Starliner approached the space station.