NASA astronauts Wilmore and Williams' mission extended from eight days to ten months amid Crew-10 delay

Dec 18, 2024, 03:59 AM

NASA announced that the return of astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station (ISS) has been delayed until at least late March 2025 due to the postponement of the SpaceX Crew-10 mission. Wilmore and Williams arrived at the ISS in June 2024 aboard Boeing's Starliner capsule for a mission initially planned to last eight days. However, after NASA decided to send the problem-plagued Starliner capsule back to Earth empty in September, their mission was extended. The astronauts, now part of Crew-9, will remain on the ISS until Crew-10 arrives to bring them back to Earth, resulting in an extended stay of approximately ten months. The delay in the Crew-10 launch, now scheduled for no earlier than late March 2025, allows NASA and SpaceX time to complete processing on a new Dragon spacecraft, set to arrive in early January.