NASA astronauts' epic stay on ISS by the numbers
The NASA astronauts who have remained in space for months longer than planned are finally headed back to Earth.
Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams performed the first astronaut-crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2024.
However, what was supposed to be a mission lasting about one week turned into a nine-month stay aboard the ISS due to several issues with Starliner.
TIMELINE: How astronauts' trip turned from 8 days to 286 days
Issues with the spacecraft prompted NASA and Boeing to send Starliner back to Earth uncrewed and keep Wilmore and Williams onboard the ISS until early 2025, when they would return home on a SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon spacecraft once Crew-10 arrived at the ISS.
SpaceX Crew-9 is finally set to return to Earth in the evening.
Assuming they splashdown at about 5:57 p.m ET on March 18, here's a look at their epic journey by the numbers.
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore mission duration: 286 days
Williams and Wilmore time aboard the International Space Station: 285 days
Williams and Wilmore orbits of the Earth: 4,576 orbits
Williams and Wilmore miles traveled: 121,347,491 statute miles
Williams and Wilmore saw the arrival of eight visiting spacecraft.
Williams and Wilmore saw the departure of eight visiting spacecraft.
Williams will have logged 286 days in space on her third flight and has a total of 608 days in space (second most by an American astronaut; Peggy Whitson has 675 days in space).
Williams conducted two spacewalks during this mission and now has conducted nine spacewalks in her career for a total of 62 hours and 6 minutes. Williams now holds the record for total spacewalking time by a female astronaut, with 62 hours and 6 minutes outside of station, and is fourth on the all-time spacewalk duration list.
Wilmore will have logged 286 days in space on his third flight and will have totaled 464 days in space.
ABC News' Gina Sunseri contributed to this report.
