Sunita Williams’ Final Photo Op at ISS Before Journey Home
Indian-origin NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, along with her colleague Butch Wilmore, has begun their return to Earth after spending more than nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS). In a heartwarming farewell video shared by NASA on social media, the duo was seen taking part in one last photo session before boarding the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that will carry them back home.
Williams, 62, and Wilmore, 59, undocked from the ISS at 10:35 am IST, starting a 17-hour journey that will end with a splashdown off the coast of Florida at approximately 3:27 am IST on Wednesday.
Their extended mission began on June 5 of last year, when they were originally sent to the ISS on a short-duration test flight for Boeing’s Starliner. However, after the Starliner encountered propulsion issues and was declared unfit for a crewed return, the two were reassigned to the NASA-SpaceX Crew-9 mission. In September, a Dragon capsule was launched with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to make way for the stranded astronauts.
On Sunday, the arrival of the Crew-10 relief team at the ISS paved the way for Williams and Wilmore’s homecoming. Although their time aboard the ISS exceeded the typical six-month rotation, it remains only the sixth-longest single mission in U.S. history. For context, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio set the U.S. record with 371 days in 2023, while Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov holds the world record at 437 days aboard the Mir station.
Adding to the drama on Earth, a political blame game has emerged. US President Donald Trump, back in power since January, along with his close advisor Elon Musk, have accused former President Joe Biden of abandoning the astronauts by refusing an earlier rescue plan. Trump even took to Truth Social to claim that Biden’s team “shamefully forgot about the astronauts,” a charge that has further fueled the debate.
As the astronauts make their final approach back to Earth, their return is eagerly awaited by a nation and the world, marking the end of an unexpectedly prolonged stay in space.