Indian-Origin Astronaut Sunita Williams to Return to Earth on March 19

Indian-origin NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and her colleague Butch Willmore are set to return to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) on March 19. They have spent about 10 months in space after technical issues delayed their return. Williams and Willmore have been at the ISS since June of last year due to problems with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which initially transported them to the station.

The astronauts will return after NASA’s Crew-10 mission arrives at the ISS on March 12. The Crew-10 team includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. After a week-long handover, Sunita Williams, Butch Willmore, Nick Hague, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will return to Earth as part of the Crew-9 mission.

NASA sped up the return plans for Williams and Willmore using a previously flown Dragon spacecraft called "Endurance" for the Crew-10 launch. Although there were claims of the astronauts being “stranded,” both Willmore and Williams clarified that they were fully prepared for unexpected delays during space missions. The Crew-10 launch is expected to slightly delay Axiom’s planned mission, which will include Subhanshu Shukla, the first Indian astronaut to visit the ISS.