Sunita 'Suni' Williams, 59 -- 'the woman with the wild hair' as described by US President Donald Trump -- and Barry 'Butch' Wilmore, 62, will return to earth soon, said National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Return date is likely March 16. Here are a few historic pics that the Indian-American astronaut may look back on.
The two astronauts have been stranded on the International Space Station since June 2024
Suni and Butch will board the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to return to earth early next week. Barry Butch Wilmore, who hails from Tennessee, was a US Navy pilot and has been a pilot for NASA since 2000.
On March 12, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon spacecraft will carry four astronauts -- NASA astronauts Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov -- to the ISS to organise for the return of Butch and Suni. The rocket will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
William and Wilmore's journey to the ISS would be the most reported space event in recent times mainly because of their inability to come back to Earth owing to problems with the thrusters and a helium leak with Boeing's spaceship Starliner that took them to the ISS.
Their stay aboard the ISS extended from 9-10 days to 10 months. She is seen here servicing a space suit.
Suni Williams is pictured during a six-hour spacewalk for science and maintenance on the International Space Station in January 2025, making her one of the few astronauts to have done so many spacewalks.
A space portrait!
Suni Williams and Tracy Dyson peek out of the cupola, called the International Space Station's 'window to the world', while orbiting 264 miles above the Atlantic Ocean just east of the Lesser Antilles group of islands.
Suni gets a haircut in space. Tracy Dyson executes a trim aboard the International Space Station's Columbus laboratory module.
This pic was a necessary inclusion and is not from space, but may make it to Sunita's album of space memories. A yagna was conducted at the Dola Mata temple in Jhulasan village in Gujarat, where her father Deepak Pandya hailed from for astronaut Sunita Williams's return from space.