NASA Announces Sunita Williams' Return Date To Earth — Check Splashdown Time, Live Streaming And More

After spending over nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are finally set to return to Earth. NASA has confirmed that their journey back will begin on Tuesday, Mar. 18, ending a mission that has lasted far longer than originally planned.

The astronauts, along with another NASA crew member and a Roscosmos cosmonaut, will be making the return trip aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, which successfully docked with the ISS over the weekend.

The return comes after an unexpected delay caused by technical issues with Boeing's Starliner, which was initially intended to bring them home.

Williams and Wilmore reached the ISS in June 2024 as part of the first-ever crewed mission of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. But their return was postponed due to problems with the Starliner’s propulsion system. 

As a result, NASA opted to keep them aboard the ISS while evaluating alternative options. Ultimately, it was decided that they would return in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. The delay extended their stay on the space station well beyond the original schedule.

NASA has confirmed that the Crew Dragon capsule carrying Wilmore and Williams will splash down off the Florida coast at around 5:57 p.m. EDT on Mar. 18 (3:27 a.m. IST, Mar. 19). NASA and SpaceX will continue to monitor conditions at sea and will confirm the exact splashdown site closer to the return time.

NASA will provide live streaming of Crew-9's return, beginning with hatch closure preparations at 10:45 p.m. EDT on Mar. 17 (8:15 a.m. IST, Mar. 18).

• Mar. 17, 10:45 p.m. EDT (8:15 a.m. IST, Mar. 18) – Hatch closure coverage starts on NASA+

• Mar. 18, 12:45 a.m. EDT (10:15 a.m. IST, Mar. 18) – Live coverage of undocking begins

• Mar. 18, 1:05 a.m. EDT (10:35 a.m. IST, Mar. 18) – Undocking from the ISS

• Mar. 18, 5:11 p.m. EDT (2:41 a.m. IST, Mar. 19) – Deorbit burn (approximate)

• Mar. 18, 5:57 p.m. EDT (3:27 a.m. IST, Mar. 19) – Splashdown (approximate)

• Mar. 18, 7:30 p.m. EDT (5:00 a.m. IST, Mar. 19) – Post-splashdown press briefing

For those keen on watching, NASA+ will stream the entire event live. 

While their extended stay was not initially planned, this duration is far shorter than the US space record of 371 days set by NASA astronaut Frank Rubio aboard the ISS in 2023 and the world record held by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent 437 consecutive days on the Mir space station.