NASA astronauts returning home after being stuck in space for nine months
The two ex-Navy pilots flew to the Orbit lab nine months ago on what was supposed to be a days-long trip round to test Boeing’s Starliner on its first crewed flight.
NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have finally departed for earth early today ending their nine months aboard the International Space Station.
The two ex-Navy pilots flew to the Orbit lab nine months ago on what was supposed to be a days-long trip round to test Boeing’s Starliner on its first crewed flight.
They got stuck after the spaceship developed propulsion problems and became unfit for the 62- and 59-year-olds to fly back.
Wilmore and Williams were reassigned to the NASA-SpaceX Crew-9 mission, in which a Dragon spacecraft flew to the ISS in September last year with a team of two rather than the usual four to make room for the two who were ‘stranded’.
The relief for the pair came over the weekend when a relief team called Crew-10 docked with the station.
Crew-10’s arrival clears the way for Wilmore and Williams to depart, along with American Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
They were met with smiles and hugs as they floated through the hatch.
With the warm meet-up and the crew remaining on the ISS, the quartet entered the capsule and closed its hatch at 0305 Greenwich Meridian Time today.
Following a series of final checks, the craft is scheduled to undock at 8.05 am (0505 GMT).
If all goes smoothly, the Dragon craft will deploy its parachutes off the coast of Florida for an ocean splashdown, where a recovery vessel will retrieve the crew.
Wilmore and Williams’ stay surpasses the standard six-month ISS rotation but ranks only sixth among US records for the single-mission duration.
Frank Rubio holds the top spot at 371 days in 2023, while the world record remains with Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent 437 consecutive days aboard the Mir station.
According to Rihana Bokhari, a scientist doctor at the Centre for Space Medicine at Baylor College, the pair will experience some health risks such as muscle and bone loss, fluid shifts and readjusting to gravity.
Still, the unexpected nature of their extended stay – away from their families and initially without enough packed supplies – has drawn public interest and sympathy.
Their unexpected stint also became a political lightning rod, with President Donald Trump and his close advisor, Elon Musk – who leads SpaceX – repeatedly suggesting former president Joe Biden abandoned the astronauts and refused an earlier rescue plan.
Such accusations have prompted an outcry in the space community, especially as Musk offered no specifics and NASA’s plan for the astronauts’ return has remained unchanged since their Crew-9 reassignment.
Trump has also drawn attention for his bizarre remarks, referring to Williams, a decorated former naval captain, as “the woman with the wild hair” and speculating about the personal dynamic between the two.
