After more than nine months in the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams returned to Earth.
Due to unforeseen delays, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore spent more than nine months on the International Space Station (ISS) before returning to Earth. At 5:57 p.m. ET on Tuesday (3:27 a.m. IST on Wednesday), SpaceX's Dragon Freedom capsule successfully splashed down off the Florida coast close to Tallahassee.
Astronauts Nick Hague and Aleksandr Grebyonkin joined "Butch and Suni" when they arrived at the ISS in December as part of a rescue operation organized by SpaceX and NASA.
"Welcome home, on behalf of SpaceX," SpaceX Mission Control in California radioed.
The astronauts emerged from their charred capsule an hour after their 17-hour voyage, grinning and waving at the cameras as they were hurried away on reclining stretchers for standard medical examinations.
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| Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore "NASA astronauts" |
It was difficult to overlook the political overtones of the successful rescue since the White House asserted that President Trump was responsible for the expedition.“PROMISE MADE, PROMISE KEPT: President Trump pledged to rescue the astronauts stranded in space for nine months. Today, they safely splashed down in the Gulf of America, thanks to @ElonMusk, @SpaceX, and @NASA!” it wrote on X."
Last June, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore embarked on an eight-day planned trip to the International Space Station. Due to problems with the propulsion system of the Boeing Starliner capsule, they were compelled to remain. The pair was the first crew to take a test flight of Boeing's Starliner. Last September, the malfunctioning capsule made its way back to Earth.
Key points
* During their 286-day stay aboard the ISS, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore completed more than 4500 orbits and covered more than 121 million statute miles.
* NASA's 45-day post-mission rehabilitation program will help the crew recuperate from the physical strain of spaceflight.
* The duration of "Butch and Suni" in space was 286 days, which was 278 days longer than what was originally projected. By the time of splashdown, they had traveled 121 million miles (195 million kilometers) and made 4,576 orbits around the Earth.
* After completing her third trip, Sunita Williams will have spent 608 days in space overall, which is second only to Peggy Whitson's 675 days as a US astronaut. Last year, Oleg Kononenko, a Russian cosmonaut, broke a new world record with 878 cumulative days.
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