SpaceX Dragon Brings Stranded Astronauts Back to Earth

March 19, 2025

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with four Crew-9 members aboard departs the International Space Station moments after undocking from the Harmony module’s space-facing port. (Image: NASA)

At 1:05 a.m. on Tuesday, March 18, NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov undocked from the space-facing port of International Space Station’s (ISS) Harmony module aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft for the completion of the "Crew-10" mission.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft's mission to and from the ISS is the result of problems experienced by Boeing's Starliner spacecraft last year , leaving NASA astronauts Butch and Suni onboard the ISS since June 2024 after originally planning to stay there for just eight days. An issue with Starliner's reaction control system thrusters forced NASA and Boeing to operate an uncrewed return flight of Starliner in September. Now, nearly six months later, SpaceX Dragon is returning Butch and Suni to Earth.

After performing a series of departure burns to move away from the space station, Dragon will conduct multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison the trunk, and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown off the coast of Florida approximately 17 hours later the same day. As of the writing of this article, Dragon's return was still in progress.

Air Force Maj. Nichole Ayers is the pilot for NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 mission to bring Butch and Suni back to Earth. Ayers has flown missions around the globe, including more than 200 combat hours during Operation Inherent Resolve over Iraq and Syria and more than 1,400 flight hours in the T-38 Talon and F-22 Raptor. This was her first spaceflight.

An infographic from SpaceX showing the planned timeline of Dragon’s journey to and from the ISS. (Image: SpaceX)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Dragon spacecraft into orbit, March 14, 2025, carrying Ayers, along with Army Col. Anne McClain, who is serving as mission commander. Also on board was Takuya Onishi, an astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. The spacecraft autonomously docked to the space station March 15, 2025, after approximately 28.5 hours of travel at 17,000 mph in orbit around Earth.

The crew was scheduled to undock and return to Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. SpaceX provided a timeline of the various stages of the return journey that the Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to complete on its website.

"Dragon separation confirmed!," SpaceX wrote in a post on X on Tuesday.

Some of the astronauts from SpaceX's Crew-10 mission, including Ayers, are remaining on the ISS for Expeditions 72 and 73.

During their mission, Crew-10 is scheduled to conduct material flammability tests to contribute to future spacecraft and facility designs. The crew will engage with students worldwide via the ISS Ham Radio program and use the program’s existing hardware to test a backup lunar navigation solution. The astronauts also will serve as test subjects, with one crew member conducting an integrated study to better understand physiological and psychological changes to the human body to provide valuable insights for future deep space missions.

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