Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, two NASA astronauts who have been aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for over eight months, are expected to return to Earth by mid-March, earlier than their previously scheduled return of late March or early April.

On June 5, 2025, Barry 'Butch' Wilmore and Sunita 'Suni' Williams launched aboard Boeing's Starliner for the spacecraft's first crewed mission, initially planned for an eight-day orbit. But, they watched the Starliner they arrived return to Earth without them three months prior.

NASA has decided to use the previously flown SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, named Endeavor, for the upcoming Crew-10 mission to bring the astronauts back from the ISS. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov will launch to the ISS on this SpaceX Crew-10 mission, according to NASA website.

The planned mission of Williams and Wilmore was a short term assignment. But it was being continuously delayed by Starliner capsule's technical snags including propellant leaks and propulsion issues. On August 24, 2024, Williams entered the top 30 in the time-in-space rankings and is expected to be among the top 12 by the time she returns in 2025. Sunita Williams has been trending on Google since the new dates of Astronauts' return to Earth was announced.

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