On June 2024, Commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Flight Engineer Sunita "Suni" Williams faced an unexpected emergency aboard the International Space Station (ISS). After nearly a year in orbit, they safely returned to Earth on March 18, 2025, aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
Both astronauts were part of the 2024 Crew-7 mission, scheduled to launch on a Boeing Starliner. Prior to launch, the Starliner experienced multiple helium leaks and propulsion issues, forcing the launch to be postponed and eventually replaced by a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
These failures rendered the Starliner unfit for return, compelling NASA to award the rescue mission to SpaceX.
SpaceX launched a Crew Dragon capsule in late 2024, after rigorous ground tests and a brief crew training period. The capsule rendezvoused with the ISS, retrieved the astronauts, and conducted a safe return trajectory.
Wilmore and Williams remained in space for 286 days—just over nine months—making it one of the longest single-duration stays on the ISS.
The Crew Dragon landed on March 18, 2025, after a flight lasting approximately 20 hours. The astronauts were greeted by NASA officials and medical teams at the Kennedy Space Center.
During a 5‑hour, 26‑minute extravehicular activity (EVA) with fellow astronaut Nick Hague, Suni Williams added 62 hours, 6 minutes of cumulative EVA time—surpassing Peggy Whitson’s former record of 60 hours, 21 minutes for female astronauts.
Throughout the mission, Williams and Hague performed critical maintenance, installing patches, replacing reflector devices on docking adapters, and conducting preventative checks for future ISS crews.
