In June 2024, Butch and Suni took part in the first crewed test flight of the Starlight spacecraft. Unfortunately, the capsule faced technical problems on its way to the space pod, and it was too risky to get the astronauts back home. Starliner returned to Earth in September without them. To solve this problem in late September, NASA sent a SpaceX capsule to the ISS with 2 people instead of the usual 4 to leave some room for the Butch and Suni. Unfortunately, the capsule had a separate 9-month mission to complete, delaying the astronaut’s return home.
While in space, Suni and Butch were certainly not bored. They performed many experiments and spacewalks; Suni even broke the record for the woman who spent the most hours outside the space station. They even showed their holiday spirit on Christmas by dressing in Santa hats and reindeer antlers.
Even while Suni and Butch were in space, they still managed to vote in the 2024 presidential election. Mission Control Center sent voting ballots through encrypted email, which the astronauts filled out and transmitted to satellites. Those satellites then sent them to a ground terminal in New Mexico, where landlines transmitted the information back to Mission Control. To finish the process, Mission Control sent them to the astronauts’ county clerks for filing.
Medical experts will check over Butch and Suni at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas. When astronauts are in space for long durations of time, it can have negative impacts on their bodies. They can lose bone density, suffer some muscle loss, have fluid shifts that affect their eyesight, and even some changes in blood circulation.
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore landed on Earth on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico in the early evening, just hours after departing the International Space Station. Splashdown occurred off the coast of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle.
Wilmore and Williams ended up spending 286 days in space, 278 days longer than anticipated when they launched. They circled Earth 4,576 times and traveled 121 million miles! These astronauts went through a grueling and troublesome experience, but despite it all, they managed to stay positive throughout the journey. Suni Williams said, “I’m looking forward to seeing my family, my dogs, and jumping in the ocean. That will be really nice – to be back on Earth and feel Earth.” Now that Suni and Butch are finally home, they have more than earned the right to relax.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg1zv5d54ko
https://apnews.com/article/nasa-stuck-astronauts-spacex-boeing-419f98f239a25cfb54f970b8522dc1d2
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mw221z2yyo