‘Will miss you’: Sunita Williams gets emotional during goodbye; when is she landing on Earth? NASA shares schedule

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams formally transferred the command of the International Space Station (ISS) to Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin ahead of her scheduled plan to board SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft to return to Earth, USA Today reported. Roscosmos and National Aeronautics and Space Administration collaborated to make it possible for the two astronauts, Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, who were stranded in space for months, to depart for Earth.

Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore initially embarked on a 10-day mission on June 5 aboard the Boeing Starliner but have been living on the ISS for the past nine months after their capsule faced successive failures. The spacecraft returned without a crew in September last year.

Later, SpaceX Crew-9 mission was launched with Nasa astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard Dragon spacecraft to bring back the stranded astronauts in February. Following successive delays, all four will return together on March 19.

Addressing the command handover ceremony, Sunita Williams expressed her gratitude to all who assisted her with the mission, including trainers, friends, family and control centres. While handing over the command to Ovchinin, the Indian-American astronaut said, “We will miss you,” USA Today reported.

Astronauts on SpaceX Crew-10 mission

The SpaceX Crew-10 mission is scheduled to launch on March 12 or 13 from Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) with Nasa astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA’s Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos’ Kirill Peskov onboard. These astronauts will officially become members of Expedition 72 after taking over duties and responsibilities from the departing crew. Sunita Williams will engage in a week-long handover procedure before heading out with fellow crew members on March 19.

Notably, Crew-10 will replace Crew-9 with a six-month stay, which will fly aboard the veteran Dragon Endurance instead of a new spacecraft due to manufacturing delays. Ovchinin, who is expected to remain in space until mid-April, will oversee the station operations, alongside Roscosmos Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner and NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit.