Incredible new images have shown the startling changes nine months trapped in space can have on the human body.
In new images released by Nasa, the astronauts can be seen beaming from ear to ear after they touched back down on Earth, landing on the water near Tallahassee, Florida, nine months after jetting off in June 2024. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams had expected to be at the International Space Station for around a week when they left on Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule on June 5. But during their trip, issue after issue cropped up and their return date kept being pushed back.
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Images of the pair taken before they set off showed a fuller-faced Butch crossing his arms as they were photographed in a zero-gravity press shot, with Suni’s curly hair levitating up above her head. In the pictures taken yesterday, Butch is seen noticeably more gaunt, with many more wrinkles appearing around his eyes, nose and mouth.
Meanwhile, both of their faces appear drained, with Butch’s reddish pallor and Suni’s darker complexion noticeably more grey. Suni’s hair, which was a dark brown-black before the flight, appears almost completely grey. Despite the big changes in their appearance, both astronauts look jubilant in the photographs.
Yesterday evening, their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico just hours after departing the International Space Station. Splashdown occurred off the coast of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle, bringing their unplanned odyssey to an end. Within an hour, the astronauts were out of their capsule, waving and smiling at the cameras while being hustled away in reclining stretchers for routine medical checks.
It all started with a flawed Boeing test flight last spring. So many problems cropped up on the way to the space station that NASA eventually sent Starliner back empty and transferred the test pilots to SpaceX, pushing their homecoming into February. Then SpaceX capsule issues added another month’s delay.
Sunday’s arrival of their relief crew meant Wilmore and Williams could finally leave. NASA cut them loose a little early, given the iffy weather forecast later this week. They checked out with NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov, who arrived in their own SpaceX capsule last fall with two empty seats reserved for the Starliner duo.
Butch and Suni ended up spending 286 days in space – 278 days longer than anticipated when they launched. They circled Earth 4,576 times and travelled 121 million miles (195 million kilometres) by the time of splashdown. “On behalf of SpaceX, welcome home,” radioed SpaceX Mission Control in California. “What a ride,” replied Hague, the capsule’s commander. “I see a capsule full of grins ear to ear.”
Dolphins circled the capsule as divers readied it for hoisting onto the recovery ship. Once safely on board, the side hatch was opened and the astronauts were helped out, one by one. Suni was next-to-last out, followed by Butch who gave two gloved thumbs-up.
Butch and Suni’s plight captured the world’s attention, giving new meaning to the phrase “stuck at work” and turning “Butch and Suni” into household names. While other astronauts had logged longer spaceflights over the decades, none had to deal with so much uncertainty or see the length of their mission expand by so much.
Butch and Suni quickly transitioned from guests to full-fledged station crew members, conducting experiments, fixing equipment and even spacewalking together. With 62 hours over nine spacewalks, Suni set a record: the most time spent spacewalking over a career among female astronauts.
Both had lived on the orbiting lab before and knew the ropes, and brushed up on their station training before rocketing away. Suni became the station’s commander three months into their stay and held the post until earlier this month.
Their mission took an unexpected twist in late January when President Donald Trump asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to accelerate the astronauts’ return and blamed the delay on the Biden administration. The replacement crew’s brand new SpaceX capsule still wasn’t ready to fly, so SpaceX subbed it with a used one, hurrying things along by at least a few weeks.
Both retired Navy captains, Butch and Suni stressed they didn’t mind spending more time in space – a prolonged deployment reminiscent of their military days. But they acknowledged it was tough on their families.
Butch, 62, missed most of his younger daughter’s senior year of high school; his older daughter is in college. Suni, 59, had to settle for internet calls from space to her husband, mother and other relatives. “We have not been worried about her because she has been in good spirits,” said Falguni Pandya, who is married to Suni’s cousin. “She was definitely ready to come home.”
Prayers for Suni and Butch were offered up at 21 Hindu temples in the U.S. in the months leading up to their return, said organizer Tejal Shah, president of World Hindu Council of America. Suni has spoken frequently about her Indian and Slovenian heritage. Prayers for their safe return also came from Butch’s Baptist church in Houston, where he serves as an elder.
Crowds in Jhulasan, the ancestral home of Suni’s father, danced and celebrated in a temple and performed rituals during the homecoming. The duo will have to wait until they’re off the SpaceX recovery ship and flown to Houston before reuniting with their loved ones. The three NASA astronauts will be checked out by flight surgeons as they adjust to gravity, officials said, and should be allowed to go home after a day or two.
