By Gabrielle Apisa ‘27
After being suspended in the world’s exosphere for an unthinkable 286 days, astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore made a revolutionary splashdown with Crew-9 members on Tuesday, March 18th, right off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida.
What should have been no longer than an eight-day visit to the International Space Station (ISS) turned into nine months of zero gravity. Though it surely wasn’t nine months of triumph, Williams and Wilmore can expect a slew of publicity after enduring such an incredible mission.
What became the sixth longest space mission in NASA’s (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) history (Cape Cod Times) was once meant to be a meager week-long venture to the ISS. In preparing for takeoff on June 5th, 2024, Williams and Wilmore acted as participants in a routine Crew Flight Test mission (CFT) for the newly developed Boeing Starliner (Space.com).
Having failed one mission to the ISS in 2019, while reaping success in a later 2022 “uncrewed flight,” (Space.com) the Starliner had yet to pursue a crewed voyage at the time of Williams and Wilmore’s launch. Thus, malfunctions were initially averted, but proved unavoidable.
Though the spacecraft led a successful mission to the International Space Station, it returned to Earth crewless on September 7th, 2024. After several helium leaks in the Starliner, a mission to bring Williams and Wilmore home was pushed back at least three separate times from June 11th to August 24th, 2024 (ABC News). Eventually, on August 24th, NASA specialists confirmed that, for safety reasons, Williams and Wilmore would return to Earth with SpaceX’s Crew-9 team in 2025.
Ultimately, though, these troubles didn’t remain confined to the field of aeronautics. With the inauguration of a second Trump administration in January of 2025, a new, more political light was shed on this story. According to the New York Post, a resurgence of action came about after President Donald Trump and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk, “repeatedly blamed former President Joe Biden for leaving them [Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore] marooned.”
Other noteworthy individuals, like former astronaut Clayton Anderson, claimed that the Biden administration chose not to go through with a rescue mission in September of 2024, because “they didn’t want a disaster right before an election that they were trying to win…” (AOL).
Despite all the political controversy surrounding this story, we must focus on the real victory: the return. On March 14th, SpaceX’s Crew-10, as part of NASA’s Expedition 72 to the ISS, headed for the International Space Station to replace Crew-9 members. Once aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule, it took just around five hours for Williams and Wilmore to arrive on Earth.
After a treacherous nine months of zero gravity, these space heroes were greeted with cheers and, interestingly enough, a swarm of Floridian dolphins.
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