Headline Roundup • March 18th, 2025
NASA Astronauts Return Home After Nine Months in Space
Summary from the AllSides News Team
After being stranded in space for nine months, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore finally made their journey back to Earth via a SpaceX capsule.
The Details: Williams and Wilmore, who had been in space since June 2024, were initially only supposed to have a short stay on the International Space Station. However, they encountered thruster issues following the launch of Boeing’s Starliner mission last year. The Starliner returned to Earth last September without its crew. The two astronauts, joined by NASA's Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, undocked from the International Space Station early Tuesday and are set to splash down in Florida late Tuesday.
For Context: The astronauts' prolonged stay in space gained international attention and became a politically charged issue. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said he could have brought Williams and Wilmore home months ago, but the offer was denied by the Biden administration for “political reasons.” Senior Biden officials told CNN (Lean Left bias) they weren't aware of any offer.
How The Media Covered It: Fox Business (Lean Right) and Breitbart (Right) highlighted President Trump's involvement in the situation, quoting him, and noting President Biden's failure to bring the astronauts back. CNN and USA Today (Lean Left) focused more on the details of the astronauts' experiences and their return, not leading with Trump's involvement. Updated 3/18/25 at 7:10 pm ET.
Revised by the AllSides staff (of humans) after a first draft from our custom AI. Learn more. Support our mission.
Featured Coverage of this Story
The SpaceX capsule tasked with bringing back two NASA astronauts who have spent months on the International Space Station (ISS) after thruster issues following the launch of Boeing’s Starliner mission last year have now departed for Earth.
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams undocked early Tuesday from the space-facing port of the ISS Harmony module in the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, NASA confirmed.
Stranded NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams successfully undocked from the International Space Station at 1:05 a.m. Tuesday and began their long-awaited journey back home after more than nine months in space.
Wilmore and Williams are returning home in a SpaceX capsule with fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian astronaut Alexander Gorbunov. They are expected to splashdown off the Florida coast at 5:57 p.m. on Tuesday.
NASA
NASA’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore — who gained international attention as their planned short stay in space stretched into a nine-month, politically fraught mission — are finally heading home.
The astronauts climbed aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule alongside two teammates, NASA’s Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, and departed the International Space Station at 1:05 a.m. ET Tuesday before an expected splashdown return Tuesday afternoon.
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