[This article has been updated to confirm the participants of the press conference]
NASA is about to give its first press conference just a couple of hours after Crew-9 returned from the space station in a nine-month mission that was only supposed to last eight days.
Williams and Wilmore, both experienced astronauts, were the first humans to ride Boeing’s new Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). But during the flight, which took place in June last year, issues developed with the spacecraft’s thrusters. While it was able to dock, engineers harbored safety concerns that prompted them to bring the Starliner home empty, leaving the pair on the ISS until a return flight could be arranged.
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Eventually it was decided to send Crew-9 to the ISS with two spare seats in a scheduled mission last September. Crew-9’s six-month stay ended in the early hours of Tuesday ET as a SpaceX Crew Dragon undocked from the ISS carrying Williams, Wilmore, fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
During their 286 days in space, Williams and Wilmore experienced 4,576 orbits and covered 121 million miles. They stayed busy the whole time, working alongside colleagues carrying out science research in microgravity conditions. In January, the two astronauts conducted a spacewalk together, while Williams also participated in a second spacewalk alongside Nick Hague.
How to watch
The press conference will start at 7:30 p.m. ET and will be livestreamed by NASA. You can watch the coverage via the player embedded at the top of this page. NASA’s X account will also carry the same video feed.
The participants will be Joel Montalbano, deputy associate administrator, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate; Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program; Bill Spetch, operations integration manager of NASA’s International Space Station Program; and SpaceX’s Sarah Walker, director of Dragon Mission Management.