Sunita Williams returns home: SpaceX Crew-9 gets ready for re-entry to Earth on Dragon.

Recently, Crew-9 astronauts took part in a refresher course to get ready for their homecoming to Earth. According to news reports , they rehearsed reentry protocols on a computer to make sure they were prepared for a safe landing on the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft.

The space agency originally scheduled their return for late March or April, but on February 11, NASA revealed that SpaceX would change capsules for future astronaut flights, enabling Wilmore and Williams to return home by mid-March instead. This change will reduce their prolonged stay at the ISS by at least a few weeks, as they reached eight months in space last week.

Due to extra work required for the new capsule, NASA has decided to launch the next crew using an older capsule, now set for takeoff on March 12 . The report noted that Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager, recognized the complexities of space exploration, stating, “Human spaceflight is rife with unforeseen challenges.”

As reported by Space.com, the timeline for Crew-9’s Dragon capsule arrival was modified due to the late launch of Starliner. Initially designed to transport four astronauts, Crew-9 launched with just two—NASA’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos’s Aleksandr Gorbunov—resulting in two vacant seats for Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore for the flight back.

Crew-9 took off on September 28, and with Hague and Gorbunov arriving at the International Space Station (ISS), the Crew-8 astronauts, who had completed a six-month mission, were prepared to head back on their own Crew Dragon. In the same way, Crew-9 will finish its mission and come back after Crew-10 arrives to take over.