NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Earth on 19 March 2025, after spending over nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The duo initially travelled to the ISS on 6 June 2024 for a short-term test mission, but their stay was unexpectedly prolonged due to the detection of a “Space bug” on the station. Amid their return, a video (here, here, here and here) has gone viral on social media, showing Sunita Williams entering a zero-gravity area and dancing. The claim suggests that this is the first video of her after returning to Earth. Let’s verify this claim.
Claim: The viral video shows astronaut Sunita Williams dancing joyfully after returning to Earth on 19 March 2025.
Fact: The video is actually from June 2024, when Sunita Williams and her crewmate Butch Wilmore entered the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Boeing Starliner. The visuals do not correspond to her recent return to Earth. Hence, the claim is MISLEADING.
To verify the claim, we conducted a reverse image search on Google, which led us to the same video uploaded by multiple users (here, here and here). One notable source is the official Boeing Space X handle, which uploaded the video on 07 June 2024. The caption read: “Hugs all around! The Expedition 71 crew greets Butch Wilmore and @Astro_Suni aboard @Space_Station after #Starliner docked at 1:34 p.m. ET on June 6.” This indicates that the video actually shows their arrival at the International Space Station, not their return to Earth. The footage captures the moment they entered the ISS and were welcomed by the existing crew.
We also found the same video uploaded on 07 June 2024, by NDTV Profit’s YouTube channel. The video was captioned: “NASA Astronaut Sunita Williams’ Victory Dance After Reaching ISS .” This further confirms that the video is not recent. It shows Sunita Williams and her colleague entering the International Space Station in June 2024.
Further research led us to several news reports (here, here and here) covering the same event. According to India Today, Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams performed a victory dance in zero gravity as she exited the Boeing Starliner capsule after docking with the International Space Station on 06 June 2024. The video, shared by Boeing Space, shows Williams joyfully dancing before hugging fellow astronauts aboard the ISS. Her historic mission made her the first woman to pilot a new spacecraft on its maiden crewed test flight. This achievement adds to her legacy, which includes records for spacewalks and time spent in space by a female astronaut.
Additionally, NASA live-streamed the video of Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore returning to Earth after spending 286 days in space, during which they orbited Earth 4,576 times. In this official footage, Sunita Williams’ reaction upon reaching Earth can be clearly seen. However, the visuals from the NASA stream do not match the viral video, confirming that the viral footage is from their entry into the ISS on 06 June 2024, and not from their recent return to Earth.
To sum up, Sunita Williams’ dancing video, which shows her entering the ISS in June 2024, was falsely shared as her celebrating after returning to Earth.
