After a prolonged wait of nine months, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams finally returned to Earth on Tuesday.
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.
About The Splashdown
On Tuesday evening local time, the SpaceX capsule carrying the astronauts parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico just hours after departing the International Space Station (ISS). The splashdown occurred off the coast of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle.
Within an hour since the splashdown, the astronauts were out of their capsule, waving and smiling at the cameras while being hustled away in reclining stretchers for routine medical checks.
Videos shared by NASA on X showed Dolphins circling the capsule as divers readied it for hoisting onto the recovery ship. Once safely on board, the side hatch was opened and the astronauts were helped out, one by one.
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.
They spent 286 days in space — 278 days longer than anticipated when they launched. They circled Earth 4,576 times and traveled 121 million miles (195 million kilometers) by the time of splashdown.
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.”
