With Suni Williams US astronaut Butch Wilmore was stuck on the International Space Station for nine months and finally returned home on Tuesday, March 18th. They returned to the Roscosmos-Aboard Spacex’s Dragon Freedom Spacecratt, two members of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission, Nick Hague of Nasa and Russian Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
The four crew managed to splash off the coast of Florida at 5:57pm EDT. The team aboard SpaceX Recovery Craft boarded Dragon Freedom and assisted the crew. The astronauts then flew to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where they reunited with their families.
Sunita Lyn “Suni” Williams (age 59) and Barry Eugene “Butch” Wilmore (age 62) unleashed on June 5, 2024 on a mission to test the Starliner, a Boeing spacecraft designed to transport lower orbital ISS and other destinations. The astronauts had no plans to spend more than two weeks in space, but Starliner’s technical issues thwarted the plan.
Some of the Starliner thrusters stopped working as I approached the space station. Boeing’s spacecraft managed to dock into the ISS, but NASA preferred not to take any risks on its return and chose to send Starliner back to Earth without the crew. The spacecraft landed safely in September.
Williams and Wilmore’s stay in the expanded universe was unplanned, but they were trained to have the chance to have to stay at the ISS for several months. Both have extensive experience in space expeditions, including previous stays on the ISS.
For the astronauts to return home, NASA decided to send only two astronauts, not four, on the subsequent SpaceX mission. Williams and Wilmore returned to Earth in two free seats in the SpaceX vehicle. After some delays, that mission (the mission on which The Hague and Golbunov are on board) took place on September 28, 2024, a reordered by the ISS.
However, this did not mark the end of Williams and Wilmore’s stay at the space station. I had to wait for the next mission to arrive at the ISS. Therefore, even after crew 9 arrived, Williams and Wilmore had to wait for the arrival of Crew 10, which did not happen until March 14th.
Stuck astronauts were prepared for these inconveniences, but their condition became a political issue between President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump’s administrations. SpaceX owner and a leading figure in the second Trump administration, Elon Musk, accused the Biden administration of abandoning ISS astronauts. Shortly after taking office, President Trump I asked Musk To return the truncated astronaut as soon as possible.
“The promise, the promise has been maintained. President Trump vowed to rescue astronauts bound to space for nine months. Today they were safely scattered in the US Gulf.
@elonmusk, @spacex, @nasa! “Official White House Account Posted on x Tuesday after the splashdown.
“We are excited to have a home for Sni, Butch, Nick and Alexandre after a few months of missions with key science and technology demonstrations and maintenance on the International Space Station.” In a statement. “According to President Trump’s instructions, NASA and SpaceX worked tirelessly to pull the schedule a month ago. This international crew and ground team embraced the Trump administration’s challenge of an updated, somewhat unique mission plan to bring our crew home.”
According to NASA, Williams and Wilmore traveled 109 million kilometers during their mission, spending 286 days in space, completing 4,576 orbits around Earth.
This story originally appeared Wired enespañol Translated from Spanish.
