NASA Live: NASA and SpaceX unload Crew-9 from the space station and start the 17-hour journey to Earth.

NASA Live: NASA and SpaceX began the four Crew-9 mission members' journey home to the International Space Station approximately one hour after midnight on Tuesday. The crew is a unique combination of two distinct missions that came together to form one.

Ankush Pandey Ankush Pandey
Mar 18, 2025 - 22:32 Updated: Mar 18, 2025 - 22:44
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NASA Live: NASA and SpaceX unload Crew-9 from the space station and start the 17-hour journey to Earth.
NASA Live: NASA and SpaceX unload Crew-9 from the space station and start the 17-hour journey to Earth. (Source: spaceflightnow)

The Dragon Freedom spacecraft starts its journey back to Earth after 12 hooks that were holding it to the Harmony module's zenith port on the International Space Station are released. NASA via livestream image

At 1:05 a.m. EDT (1705 UTC) on Tuesday, Dragon Freedom disembarked from the space station to start its approximately 17-hour journey to splash down along the Gulf Coast of Florida. Around 5:57 p.m. EDT (2157 UTC), the parachute-supported splashdown is expected to occur.

As NASA astronaut and Crew-9 commander Nick Hague and his crew drifted away from the orbiting outpost, he said, "On behalf of Crew-9, I'd like to say it was a privilege to call the station home, to live and work and be a part of a mission and a team that spans the globe, working together in cooperation for the benefit of humanity."

"To our coworkers and close companions who are still on the station... We are confident the station is in capable hands.  We can't wait to see what you guys will achieve.”

Aleksandr Gorbunov, a cosmonaut from Hague and Roscosmos, will return to Earth after spending 171 days in space from the Dragon Freedom spacecraft, which launched him to the ISS in September 2024.

Their coworkers, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, came to the space station aboard the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft and will return to Earth after 286 days in orbit.

As it retreats from the International Space Station on September 6, 2024, Boeing's Starliner spacecraft activates a few of its Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters. NASA image

During the Crew Flight Test mission, which took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on June 5, 2024, NASA leadership decided that the Starliner's propulsion system was sufficiently uncertain that returning the spacecraft to Earth without a crew on board would be the best course of action.

Williams and Wilmore were to return to Earth as members of Crew-9 and become full members of Expedition 72 at the same time, the agency decided. Dragon Freedom launched in September without two of its original crew members so that Wilmore and Williams could take their seats.

In order to provide Williams and Wilmore with a means of returning home in the event of an emergency, two temporary seats were set up inside Dragon Endeavour (which raised Crew-8) prior to Starliner's departure. In addition, NASA and Boeing decided that Starliner would be safe to use in an emergency during its docking to the ISS.

Crew-9's four members take a group photo before boarding the Dragon spacecraft to depart. NASA astronaut Suni Williams, Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, and Nick Hague are pictured from left to right. NASA via livestream image

On Saturday, March 15, after a short two-day handover with Crew-10, who docked with the station's Harmony module's forward port, Crew-9 left the ISS. The exchange was shortened, in part to capitalize on favorable weather in the Gulf and in part to conserve the quantity of consumables on board the space station, from the typical five-day handover.

NASA had to reorganize its schedule and manifest to accommodate the postponement of Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft's scheduled launch to the International Space Station due to a problem during transport.

Due to the original ride, the Crew Dragon spacecraft with tail number C213 was not ready, and the launch date of Crew-10 was also rescheduled several times.

That vehicle was originally supposed to fly the Crew-9 mission, but that was cancelled because it wasn't prepared for flight. The mission was then rescheduled for Crew-10, which resulted in a February–March delay.

NASA and SpaceX chose to use the Dragon Endurance, which was initially positioned to fly the Ax-4 private astronaut mission for Axiom Space, in order to avoid further postponing the mission since C213 wasn't yet prepared for flight.

Next, SpaceX is anticipated to launch four commercial astronauts as part of the Fram2 mission, which is a free-flying polar orbit. The launch date for that is set for late March or early April.

At SpaceX facilities in Hawthorne, California, the four commercial astronauts participating in the Fram2 mission pose inside a Dragon spacecraft training capsule. Chun Wang, Jannicke Mikkelsen, Rabea Rogge, and Eric Philips are arranged from left to right. Picture: SpaceX