NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, also popularly known as 'Suni and Butch', who have been stuck in the International Space Station (ISS) since June 2024 owing to certain technical glitches, have finally undocked on Tuesday and are all set to return to Earth aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft by March 19.
According to NASA, Williams and Wilmore undocked from the ISS at 10:35 am IST and set on a 17-hour trip back to Earth. The spacecraft, Elon Musk-led SpaceX's Dragon, will splash down off the coast of the American state of Florida around 3:27 am IST Wednesday.
The two veteran NASA astronauts embarked on a one-week-long space venture last year. However, their stay got extended owing to unforeseen technical glitches including helium leaks and thruster malfunctions in the carrying spacecraft.
A new replacement crew has arrived at the ISS after launching from Florida last week.
Williams and Wilmore boarded the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, alongside astronauts Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov.
NASA said that if weather permits, the SpaceX capsule would undock from the space station early Tuesday and splash down off Florida's coast later that evening around 5:57 PM.
About The Starliner Malfunction
On June 4, the Starliner carrying Sunita and Butch encountered a technical glitch after liftoff when helium leaked and thrusters malfunctioned on the way to the orbiting lab.
According to The Associated Press, both NASA and Boeing are trying to ascertain the reason behind the malfunction. It has been told that the engineers are still investigating the thruster breakdowns, and it's unclear when Starliner will fly again.
'Suni And Butch' On Extended Mission
Wilmore and Williams have been on the ISS since June last year owing to the technical issues in the Starliner which was deemed unfit to embark on the return journey to Earth.
During their nine-month-long extended stay in the ISS, the senior astronauts reportedly engaged in over 150 scientific experiments, contributing significantly to ongoing research in space.
They were eventually included in the SpaceX Crew-9 mission for their return journey. The Crew-10 mission, which docked at the ISS on March 17, facilitated the crew exchange necessary for Williams and Wilmore's departure.
Politics Over The Astronauts' Extended Space Venture
Wilmore and Williams' extended space venture reached the centre of a political storm when US President Donald Trump blamed the Biden Administration for keeping them up there too long.
US President Donald Trump earlier in March spoke about the possibility of personally launching a rescue team into orbit to help bring astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams back to Earth — and blasted former President Joe Biden for their eight-day mission stretching to nine months and counting.
He also had some words of appreciation for NASA라이브 바카라 Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams' hair as he told a pair of stranded astronauts aboard the International Space Station that "we're coming up to get you."
“We have two astronauts that are stuck in space. I have asked Elon (Musk), I said, ‘Do me a favour. Can you get them out?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ He is preparing to go up, I think in two weeks.”
