After a planned eight day mission to the ISS that launched in June 2024, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams splashed down near Florida over nine months later on March 18, 2025.
The two astronauts missed family events, birthdays, and Christmas while engineers tried to determine whether Boeing’s Starliner capsule would be safe to return with the crew of two or, as they later decided, to integrate Butch and Suni into the Crew-9 mission and return back on a SpaceX Crew Dragon.
Many in the media used the term “stranded” to describe the pair while they lived and worked on the ISS as part of Expedition 72. However, Butch and Suni were not the only astronauts to be coined with that term.
Though Butch and Suni may have seemed “stranded,” it’s important to note that any astronaut or cosmonaut who flies to the International Space Station (ISS) must have a vehicle to return home in if something were to go wrong. So, while the crew member’s original ride might not have been usable or ready, there is always an emergency plan in place and always a ride home available in a worst-case evacuation scenario.
Mark Vande Hei
Mark Vande Hei is a spaceflight veteran. Joining NASA in 2009, he first flew aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket as part of the Expedition 53/54 crew in 2017. He spent just under five months aboard the orbiting laboratory, including conducting a spacewalk, before returning in early 2018.
On April 9, 2021, Vande Hei, along with cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov, blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on the MS-18 mission — a mission that would see Vande Hei set the record for the longest single American spaceflight (at the time).
While Mark was training for his planned six-month mission, talks were underway in Russia as director Klim Shipenko had wanted to film a movie aboard the ISS, the first fiction film shot in space. Shipenko partnered with Roscosmos, the production company Yellow Black and White, and state-controlled television network Channel One to make “Vyzov,” or “The Challenge” in English.
In the film, Yulia Perseslid, who is not a cosmonaut but an actress who auditioned for the role and participated in rigorous cosmonaut training in Star City, Russia, plays a thoracic surgeon who is launched on an emergency mission to save the life of an ailing cosmonaut.
Mark Vande Hei works on the ISS. (Credit: NASA)
To get Yulia and the director to the space station, they would fly aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule, and the Soyuz MS-19 vehicle would be ready to launch when they planned to film in October 2021. So, instead of flying a crew to replace Pyotr and Mark, the vehicle launched with Commander Anton Shkaplerov, the actress, and the director. Once in space, Anton would become a part of the active ISS expedition, allowing Oleg to return home after his six-month stay.
With no ride home, that meant Mark would have to wait for the next crew rotation Soyuz, which was another six months from being ready. That then doubled his stay aboard the station to 355 total days.
“Honestly, it’s exciting. I think all astronauts are explorers at heart, and having the opportunity to contribute to furthering exploration is a great opportunity. My family’s been braced for this. I’ve been braced for this. It’s something that we expected, and honestly, there’s a sense of novelty to it for me. It’s a new experience, and I’m looking forward to understanding how it feels to do something like this,” Vande Hei explained.
Frank Rubio
Frank Rubio was assigned to fly aboard the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft and spend six months in space as part of the Expedition 67/68 crew. However, that six months would eventually turn into the longest single spaceflight by an American, beating Mark’s record and a record that still holds as of this publication.
Rubio, Sergey Prokopyev, and Dmitry Petelin launched on Sept. 21, 2022, from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The crew docked as expected, and their mission proceeded as expected until December 15th, when particles were seen emitting from the Soyuz spacecraft. Data from multiple pressure sensors in the cooling loop showed low readings.
Suspected coolant is seen leaking from the instrument and propulsion module aboard Soyuz MS-22. (Credit: NASA)
With all of the coolant vented out into space, engineers worried crews could see temperatures rise to over 40 degrees Celsius during reentry. In a statement, Roscosmos reported that a strike from a micrometeoroid had led to the leak, although the validity of this conclusion has been debated.
The decision was made to send the MS-22 spacecraft home without its crew and launch the MS-23 spacecraft empty. The damaged Soyuz performed an accelerated deorbit, completing the deorbit and reentry process in 55 minutes compared to the usual two and a half hours, and made it back in one piece.
For the first time in history, NASA removed a Soyuz seat liner, a special mold made to the shape of each individual cosmonaut/astronaut to ease the loads of gravity on crews after being weightless, and placed it inside a Crew Dragon. The plan was similar to Butch and Suni’s: in the event of an on-orbit emergency, Frank would move to Crew Dragon and ride home with the Crew-5 astronauts.
According to NASA, the temperatures inside the MS-22 Soyuz were indeed very high, but not as high as expected. Due to the MS-22 and MS-23 Soyuz switch, Frank would spend nearly one year in space. As of publication, he still holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by an American with 371 consecutive days in space, finally returning home with his fellow MS-22 cosmonauts on Sept. 27, 2023.
NASA astronaut and U.S. Army Lt. Col. Frank Rubio smiling and waving after the Soyuz MS-23 landing in Kazakhstan. (Credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA)
Expedition 6
NASA astronauts Ken Bowersox, Don Thomas, and Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin were preparing to launch aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-113 when their long-duration mission to the ISS encountered its first issue. Thomas had to be removed from the mission due to medical concerns, which meant his backup, Don Pettit, would take his place.
STS-113 launched from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) in Florida on Nov. 25, 2002, and the crew docked to the Station just a few days later. Bowersox, Pettit, and Budarin, as part of Expedition 6, would stay aboard the Station until the next shuttle, Atlantis, visited in March 2003 on the STS-114 mission.
However, before Atlantis would fly, NASA chose to fly a science-focused flight, STS-107, aboard Space Shuttle Columbia. Launched on Jan. 16, 2003, a piece of foam insulation from the orange external tank struck Columbia’s wing, damaging several of the Shuttle’s heat shield tiles. When the vehicle reentered Earth’s atmosphere on Feb. 1, the hole created by the foam strike led to the loss of the vehicle and the crew of seven.
The Columbia disaster grounded the Shuttle fleet for two years. With STS-114 no longer flying to the ISS in March, Bowersox and Pettit, having been on the ISS for over two months, had to find a new ride home. NASA’s only option was to send them home on a Russian Soyuz. The Soyuz TMA-1 spacecraft would serve as the return vehicle for the Americans. That meant, however, two more months in space.
Don Pettit and Ken Bowersox suit up ahead of an EVA during Expedition Six. (Credit: NASA)
After the launch of Crew-10 in 2025, Bowersox described his time on the Station during Expedition 6 and his thoughts during the move from Shuttle to Soyuz.
“The reasons we stayed longer on our mission were unfortunate, but one of the positives that came out of everything was simply more time in space,” Bowersox said. “I flew with Don 20 years ago. The only time we ever came close to an argument in space was when we disagreed over who might get to stay longer. At one point, they were talking about having us extend for an extra six months and spend a full year in space. Neither one of us ended up getting to do that.”
“Don’t worry, they were calling us ‘stranded’ back then, too,” Bowersox said.
With Soyuz TMA-1 being the first version of the then-upgraded Soyuz TMA capsule, several small issues were encountered. On May 4, 2003, the capsule began its reentry. Rather than following a trajectory allowing a smoother ride, the capsule began following a ballistic reentry, subjecting the crew to more than double the planned Gs of a normal Soyuz landing.
It was so violent that it ripped off a communications antenna, and the backups failed to deploy, meaning the crew was in a complete radio blackout following landing. They were finally able to use a backup transmitter to communicate with recovery forces, who eventually found the capsule around 300 miles short of the planned landing area.
While Expedition 6 served as Bowersox’s fifth and final flight to space, Don Pettit continued flying, and was onboard the ISS when Butch and Suni made their return home.
Sergei Krikalev
Sergei Krikalev is one of the most experienced cosmonauts in history, having spent more than 800 days in space. He first flew to the Soviet Mir space station in November 1988, where he stayed for just under six months.
Along with Anatoly Artsebarsky and British astronaut Helen Sharman, Krikalev launched on his second flight to Mir, Soyuz TM-12, on May 18, 1991, from the steppes of the then Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan to start a long-duration mission aboard Mir.
Seven days after launch, Sharman would return to Earth with the Soyuz TM-11 crew already aboard Mir, leaving Sergei and Anatoly to conduct science during their six-month stay.
The pair performed six spacewalks and a variety of experiments during the mission, while the political landscape 400 km below changed drastically. Tanks rolled through Moscow’s Red Square as Gorbachev stepped aside, marking the beginning of the end for the USSR.
Sergei Krikalev seen with his crewmate aboard Mir. (Credit: Roscosmos)
There was a capsule aboard Mir that they could use to get home at any point. However, unlike the ISS, the Soviet station could not fly without people onboard. So if the crew left, that would mean the end of the orbiting laboratory. One major question remained, though: did the Soviets even have the money to launch another crew?
The Soviet Union began working on acquiring contracts and selling seats on Soyuz to western agencies for use by their astronauts, with seats going for about $21 million USD, to raise money for future crewed missions to Mir.
In October 1991, a new crew finally launched, Soyuz TM-13, carrying two cosmonauts and one Austrian astronaut. Following Soyuz TM-13’s docking, discussions around who would stay on Mir began. While three cosmonauts launched on Soyuz TM-13, only one crew member was trained for long-duration spaceflight. This meant that while Soyuz TM-12 would return to Earth, it would return without Krikalev.
After nearly five months in space, it was determined Artsebarsky would return home, and Soyuz TM-13 commander Aleksandr Volkov would become the newest resident of Mir.
In early 1992, Krikalev learned he would finally return home. The next mission, Soyuz TM-14, featuring a new long-duration crew, launched from the now independent Republic of Kazakhstan in March 1992.
Krikalev and Volkov returned to Earth aboard the Soyuz TM-13 spacecraft on March 17, 1992. Krikalev, having spent 311 consecutive days in space, still had his Soviet Union passport, which officially dissolved in December 1991 — four months before his landing — earning him the title of “the last citizen of the USSR.”
Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin
Vladimir Lyakhov and Valery Ryumin boarded their Soyuz 32 spacecraft on Feb. 25, 1979, for a launch to the Soviet Salyut-6 space station. The station had already been in orbit for two years and was in desperate need of a major overhaul for future long-duration crewed missions.
The crew of Soyuz 32 seen training aboard their capsule. (Credit: RKK Energia)
The Soyuz 33 spacecraft, which would serve as Lyakhov and Ryumin’s ride home, launched to Salyut 6 on April 10, 1979. As the Soyuz approached the station, the automatic docking system was activated and commanded a six-second burn. However, after only three seconds, the engine shut down.
Like what Boeing tried with Starliner during its cumbersome docking with the ISS, the Soyuz team restarted the spacecraft’s docking system and tried again. However, the system shut down prematurely once again. The crew inside the capsule reported violent shaking, and the cosmonauts aboard Salyut 6 noted an unusual glow from behind Soyuz. At this point, the docking attempt was called off.
The decision to abandon the docking attempt left Lyakhov and Ryumin aboard the station. The Soyuz 33 capsule used its backup engine to deorbit. However, it fired 30 seconds longer than planned, leading to a ballistic reentry that subjected the Soyuz 33 crew to 10 Gs. They were recovered safely.
When Lyakhov and Ryumin learned their stay on Salyut 6 would be extended, they reportedly grumbled and immediately cut communications with the ground. According to reports, there was significant tension between the two cosmonauts and mission controllers for multiple days after the extension was announced. With concerns that the Soyuz 33 engine issue could also happen to the Soyuz 32 capsule, it was decided that the Soyuz 32 spacecraft would return supplies and experiments to Earth without its crew. Lyakhov and Ryumin would return on the Soyuz 34 spacecraft.
On June 6, 1979, Soyuz 34 was launched, docking shortly thereafter with Salyut 6.
After a few more months of work on the Station, the two Soyuz 32 cosmonauts were given the “go” to return home. The new engine design worked as expected, and on Aug. 19, 1979, 175 days after launching on Soyuz 32, Lyakhov and Ryumin landed back on Earth.
(Lead image: CFT crewmembers Butch WIlmore and Suni Williams aboard the ISS. Credit: NASA)
