On March 18, 2025, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams splashed down into the Gulf of Mexico aboard a SpaceX crew capsule, finally completing their unexpected nine-month mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
When the two astronauts rode an experimental Boeing Starliner spacecraft to the ISS on June 5, 2024, their stay in orbit was meant to last as few as eight days. But due to persistent leaks and errors aboard Starliner, the Boeing-made spacecraft was ultimately sent back to Earth without a crew — leaving Williams and Wilmore stuck on the ISS for more than nine months while a replacement capsule was arranged.
When the pair finally returned home in March, the astronauts had completed 286 consecutive days in space. But while that unexpectedly long duration sounds like a lot, it's totally normal for astronauts, and far from a new record.
