Will Sunita Williams come back to earth in 2025? What is NASA’s new plan?

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who went to the International Space Station and got stuck there, are still in doubt as to when they will return again. It is known that both of them were stuck there for almost 60 days. NASA weighed all possible options on how to bring them back to Earth safely.

A NASA official recently responded to the issue of when Sunita and Wilmore will return. If it is still not safe for them to return to Earth via the Starliner spacecraft, they will be picked up by the SpaceX Crew Dragon in February 2025.

Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich recently told the media that they would prefer to bring them both by Starliner. However, other options have also been considered. As a part of this, they said that they are working with Space X and have prepared plans to bring Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore through Crew 9.

The SpaceX Crew 9 mission is NASA’s operational commercial crew program. It will send four astronauts to the NASA space station. Among them, Jena Cardman, Nick Hague, Stephanie Wilson, Roscosmos are to go. The mission was scheduled to begin on the 18th of this month, but due to technical problems in the Boeing Starliner, it was postponed to September 24.

If Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore cannot be safely brought back by the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, NASA says the SpaceX Crew Dragon will bring them back in February 2025. If NASA intends to bring Sunita and Wilmore through the SpaceX Crew Dragon, only two astronauts will be sent from Earth to the space station.

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