NASA Confirms Returning Date Of Sunita Williams, Butch Willmore

Following nine months of orbiting the Earth, the homecoming of NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore is on the horizon finally.

NASA has confirmed officially that the duo, alongside two fellow crew members, will return to Earth on the evening of March 18.

This news comes following a milestone on March 16, when Crew-10, the replacement crew for Williams and Wilmore, docked successfully with the ISS.

The Crew-10 astronauts, aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, arrived following a 28-hour orbital journey, docking with the station’s Harmony module at 12:04 AM EDT (0404 GMT).

This marks a transition for Williams, who officially handed over command of the ISS to Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, who will lead operations on the station for the next six months.

NASA said, “Mission managers are targeting an earlier Crew-9 return opportunity based on favorable conditions forecasted for the evening of Tuesday, March 18″.