NASA and SpaceX launched a crewed mission to the International Space Station to bring home astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore.

The International Space Station (ISS) is almost the size of a football field. It serves as a laboratory and living space for astronauts, including Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who spent 9 months aboard stranded.

Nasa astronaut Sunita Williams is gearing up for her return to Earth on March 19, 2025, after months aboard the International Space Station (ISS). But coming home from space isn’t as simple as boarding a plane—it’s a battle against gravity itself.

Sunita Williams return LIVE Updates: Crew-10 will soon enter the ISS and join the Expedition 72 crew of NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Don Petitt, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner.

The four newcomers — representing the US, Japan and Russia — will spend the next few days learning the station's ins and outs from Butch Wilmore and Indian-American Sunita Williams.

A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the ISS, allowing for the anticipated rescue of NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore

A pair of astronauts stranded for more than nine months on the International Space Station were a step closer to returning home after a replacement crew docked with the orbital outpost.

Astronauts Sunita Williams, who grew up in Needham, and Butch Wilmore have been living on the space station since June after the Boeing Starliner capsule they arrived on experienced issues while docking.

Their time in space is considered equivalent to an official work trip on Earth, meaning they continue to earn their regular salary while NASA covers their food and living expenses aboard the ISS.

SpaceX launched a crewed NASA mission on Friday to return two astronauts from the International Space Station, after technical issues with Boeing’s spacecraft extended their stay for nine months, leading SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and President Donald Trump to suggest they were stranded for “political reasons.