NASA astronauts go home on SpaceX capsule after staying in mapping the International Space Station
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams left the International Space Station in SpaceX capsule early Tuesday morning for a long-awaited trip back to Earth, their Boeing’s flawed Starliner Craft nine months, which will carry around about a week of testing missions to about a week.
Wilmore and Williams are two experienced NASA astronauts and retired U.S. Navy test pilots whose crew Dragon Space Shuttle was tied into the Crew Dragon Spacecraft along with two other astronauts and left the orbital laboratory at 1:05 a.m. ET for a 17-hour trip to Earth.
The four-person crew is officially part of NASA’s Crew 9 Astronaut Rotation Mission, scheduled to splash off the Florida coast at 5:57 p.m. ET.
The homecoming of Wilmore and Williams ended an unusual, engaging mission full of uncertainty and technical troubles that turned NASA’s contingency plans (and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft failure) into a global and political scene.
Astronauts who have been preparing to stay at the International Space Station for nine months are now ready to return to Earth after SpaceX capsules carried new crew members to replace the SpaceX capsule that successfully docked on Sunday.
The astronaut couple became Starliner’s first crew in June, becoming an eight-day test mission. However, problems with Starliner’s propulsion system resulted in delays to return home, which eventually led to NASA’s decision last year that led to their return to SpaceX Craft this year, part of the agency’s rotation schedule.
The mission attracted the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump, who called on Wilmore and Williams to return faster after taking office in January, alleging that there was no evidence that former President Joe Biden “ditched” them for political reasons.
Elon Musk, the close adviser to Trump, responded to his call for earlier returns. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is the only orbital-class crew spacecraft in the United States, and Boeing had hoped its Starliner would compete with Willore and Williams before competing with Wilmore and Williams’ missions, turning its future into uncertainty.
Astronauts will have several days of health checks at the Johnson Passion Center in Houston, each astronaut return date, and several days of health checks before NASA flight surgeons approve their families who can go home.
From muscle atrophy to possible visual impairment, living in space for several months can affect the body in many ways.
After the splash, Wilmore and Williams will record 286 days in space – longer than the average six-month ISS mission, but far lower than our record holder Frank Rubio. His 371 consecutive days in space ending in 2023 were the unexpected result of coolant leakage on Russian spacecraft.
Williams covers her third space flight, which will take up 608 days in space, the second biggest day for any American astronaut after 675 days. Russian astronaut Oleg Kononenko set a world record with a total of 878 last year.
NASA said astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams may not be able to return from space until after many problems were found on the Boeing Superstar capsule in 2025. Andrew Chang explains why it’s getting them home is getting more and more complicated.
According to NASA, Wilmore and Williams are unable to start returning to Earth until their substitute crew arrives to maintain adequate U.S. staffing levels in NASA.
Their replacement arrived Friday night – as four astronauts on the NASA Crew 10 mission, shortening the station’s staff to 11.
“Even if we plan to keep it short, we are ready to stay for a long time,” Wilmore told space reporters earlier this month, adding that he did not believe NASA’s decision to keep it on the International Space Station until the arrival of CREW-10 is politically affected.
“That’s the whole purpose of your country’s human space flight plan, the plan is unknown, unexpected unexpected situations. We did it,” he said.
Wilmore and Williams have been conducting scientific research and routine maintenance with five other astronauts on the radio. Williams conducted two six-hour space walks outside the International Space Station (ISS), including Wilmore.
At an altitude of about 409 kilometers, ISS is a football field-sized research laboratory that has been continuously placed by international crew members of international astronauts for nearly 25 years, a scientific diplomatic platform mainly managed by the United States and Russia.
Williams told reporters earlier this month that she was looking forward to going home to see her two dogs and family.
“For them, it’s a roller coaster, maybe a little more than we do,” she said.
