Cape Canaveral: NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and her crewmate Butch Wilmore are set to return to Earth later Tuesday evening after spending nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirmed
Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams are to be transported home with another American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon craft, which arrived at the ISS early Sunday.
In a statement Sunday evening, NASA said it had moved the astronauts’ anticipated ocean splashdown off the Florida coast to nearly 5:57 p.m. on Tuesday (21:57 GMT and 3:30 a.m., March 19, IST). It was initially slated for no sooner than Wednesday.
Williams and Wilmore had initially expected to be in space for just a week when they launched in June, 2024, aboard Boeing’s first astronaut flight. However, multiple issues with their Boeing Starliner capsule forced NASA to abandon plans for it to return with crew on board, leaving the two astronauts stranded in orbit for months.
Their long-awaited return was further delayed when their replacements’ new SpaceX capsule required extensive battery repairs.
Now that an older SpaceX capsule has been assigned for their return, Wilmore and Williams are set to depart the ISS. Accompanied by two other astronauts, they will journey back to Earth, with a planned splashdown off the coast of Florida, pending favourable weather conditions.
Just over a day before their planned departure, their replacements arrived at the space station aboard a SpaceX capsule, ensuring a smooth transition. The newly arrived crew members, representing the US, Japan, and Russia, will spend the next few days learning the station’s systems from the outgoing astronauts.
As they prepared for their return, Williams and Wilmore joined the seven other astronauts already on board in welcoming the newcomers. The moment was marked with camaraderie, as one of the Russian cosmonauts, Ivan Vagner, briefly donned an alien mask for a lighthearted moment. Wilmore rang the station’s bell as the new arrivals floated through the hatch, greeting them with hugs and handshakes.
“It was a wonderful day. Great to see our friends arrive,” Williams told Mission Control.
Once they depart, the ISS will return to its usual crew size of seven, with astronauts from the US, Russia, and Japan continuing operations aboard the orbiting laboratory.
PNN & Agencies