Sunita Williams' Return Delayed Again; NASA Now Predicts Arrival In Late March

According to NASA's latest update, Sunita Williams will return to earth from the International Space Station no earlier than late March 2025. The SpaceX Crew-10 launch delay gives NASA and SpaceX additional time to finalise preparations for a new Dragon spacecraft that will carry four crew members to the International Space Station.

The spacecraft that is going to ISS to bring back Williams and three other crew members is expected to arrive at SpaceX's Florida processing facility in early January.

The replacements, being called, Crew-10, comprise of NASA astronauts Anne McClain (commander), Nichole Ayers (pilot), JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi (mission specialist), and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. They are currently training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Once Crew-10 arrives at the ISS, NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 team—consisting of astronauts Nick Hague, Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov—will return to Earth. The overlap period, known as a "handover," ensures a smooth transition, allowing the outgoing crew to share mission insights and operational lessons.

The space station's current occupants, including Crew-9 and station crew of Expedition 72, are engaged in scientific research and preparing for upcoming spacewalks. Recent resupply missions in November have stocked the ISS with essential items such as food, water, clothing, and oxygen, alongside holiday supplies to keep spirits high aboard.

Expedition 72 will conclude with the return of the Soyuz spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Don Pettit. On average, astronauts spend about six months on the ISS, with extended stays of up to a year helping NASA study human adaptation to long-duration spaceflight—critical for future space missions.

Veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams arrived at the International Space Station in June aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, with plans to spend eight days on the orbiting laboratory. However, issues with the Starliner's propulsion system emerged during the journey, prompting NASA to revise its plans.

After conducting extensive tests on the spacecraft, the agency decided to send the Starliner back to Earth without its crew and instead bring Wilmore and Williams home aboard a SpaceX mission, Crew-9.

Crew-9's two astronauts, who arrived at the ISS in late September aboard a Dragon spacecraft, had left two seats empty for Wilmore and Williams. The revised plan was for all four astronauts to return to Earth in February 2025.