Fact Check: SpaceX booster helped Sunita Williams return to Earth? No, video is not related to NASA mission

In this context, a video is going viral on social media with the claim that it shows the footage of Sunita Williams returning to Earth. The video shows a booster, which is leaving behind contrail, heading towards the ground. The booster flies towards the launch tower and is ‘caught’ by the launch tower after a short combustion. A booster is a rocket that helps a spacecraft launch by providing extra thrust

The video was shared on Threads with the caption, “Sunitha Williams returns to Earth after nine months. Congratulations” (Translated from Telugu) (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video showed a SpaceX Starship booster landing, which is not related to Sunita Williams’s return to Earth.

Using a reverse image search, we found a video of a booster returning to a launch tower, shared on an X account on March 7, 2025. The caption of the video indicated that the video showed the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 Super Heavy Booster landing. The mechanism of the booster landing was similar to the landing seen in the video.

The caption read, “An unforgettable experience watching the long-delayed Starship Flight 8 at @jwolfgram House with friends from all over the U.S. and beyond! The booster landing was a success, but unfortunately, we lost the ship. Still, what a moment in spaceflight history!”

Keyword searches led us to a YouTube Shorts uploaded on March 7, 2025, with the title, ‘SpaceX test flight 8 booster catch’. This gave a closer look at the landing mechanism.

According to a Space.com report, SpaceX launched the test flight of its Starship mega rocket on March 6, 2025, from its Starbase site in South Texas. The report stated, “Seven minutes later, Starship’s huge first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, returned to Starbase for a dramatic catch by the launch tower’s ‘chopstick’ arms.”

SpaceX’s Flight 8 is made up of a Starship Upper stage and a Super Heavy Booster.

The rocket-catching structure is named Mechazilla. It is a custom-built 400-foot-tall tower that is designed to catch large flying objects. A Business Today article, dated October 14, 2024, stated, “As the booster nears the landing site, Mechazilla’s giant arms move into position. The booster hovers briefly before the arms catch it, ensuring a safe and controlled landing.”

So far, the Mechazilla caught the Super Heavy Boosters after the test flights of SpaceX’s Flight 5, Flight 7 and Flight 8. This confirmed that the viral video showed one such Super Heavy Booster being caught by the Mechazilla.

The launch and the catching of SpaceX’s latest Super Heavy Booster took place on March 6, when Flight 8 was launched from SpaceX’s Starbase Facility in South Texas. However, Sunita Williams and other NASA astronauts returned to Earth on March 19.

How did the NASA astronauts land on Earth?

The video of SpaceX Crew-9 re-entry and splashdown was uploaded by NASA to YouTube on March 19, 2025. The video clearly showed their spacecraft splashdown off Florida’s coast.

At the 1:13:32-hour mark in the video, we can see the descent of the SpaceX Dragon Capsule carrying the NASA astronauts. Four parachutes helped the capsule slow down and it splashed in the ocean.

At the 2:02:55-hour mark in the video, we can see NASA astronaut Nick Hague emerge from the capsule followed by three others, including Sunita Williams at the 2:08:23 mark in the video. This showed that the NASA astronauts returned to Earth in the capsule that splashed down in the ocean, not on a booster caught by Mechazilla.

Therefore, we conclude that the video of the booster is unrelated to Sunita Williams’s return to Earth after a nine-month space mission.