Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have returned house after their eight-day mission to the Worldwide House Station became a nine-month-long ordeal to carry them again. They flew on a Boeing Starliner to house on June 5 final yr and returned in SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft this morning.
The space capsule deployed its parachute earlier than a splashdown within the ocean off the coast of Florida. The 2 astronauts travelled together with NASA’s Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov for 17 hours on their journey house.
A NASA crew opened the hatch and helped astronauts onto mobility aids.
Ms Williams was seen waving and flashing thumbs-up indicators as she got here out of the capsule.
THE MOMENT! Sunita Williams exits the Dragon capsule#sunitawilliamsreturn #SunitaWillams pic.twitter.com/sCsYw7MUgq
— JUST IN | World (@justinbroadcast) March 18, 2025
Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome again to Earth, Nick, Suni, Butch, and Aleks! pic.twitter.com/M4RZ6UYsQ2
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 18, 2025
The spacecraft initiated a deorbit burn – A manoeuvre through which the spacecraft fires its engines and turns round within the course it’s travelling, serving to it decelerate – at 2:41 am, earlier than a splash down 44 minutes later at 3:27 am.
Live Updates: Sunita Williams’ Spacecraft Splashes Down Near Florida Coast
Crew-9 undocked at 10:35 am (IST), with NASA sharing a video of the spacecraft detaching from the house station. Elon Musk’s SpaceX was tasked with the duty to carry Crew-9 again to Earth. The Dragon capsule atop the Falcon 9 rocket was launched for the mission. Crew-10 has changed Crew-9 on the Worldwide House Station.
US President Donald Trump has accused the earlier Biden administration of abandoning them. The White Home responded to the mission’s success and stated President Trump made a “promise and saved it.”
PROMISE MADE, PROMISE KEPT: President Trump pledged to rescue the astronauts stranded in house for 9 months.
Right now, they safely splashed down within the Gulf of America, due to @ElonMusk, @SpaceX, and @NASA! pic.twitter.com/r01hVWAC8S
— The White Home (@WhiteHouse) March 18, 2025
8 Days To 9 Months
Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore, each former Navy pilots, had flown to the orbital lab on June 5 final yr on what was imagined to be an eight-day mission and the primary crewed flight of a Boeing Starliner. They had been left stranded after the Starliner capsule suffered propulsion points. Deemed unfit to fly, it returned uncrewed in September.
Amid uncertainty over their return journey, NASA reassigned them to SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, and a Dragon spacecraft was despatched in September with a two-member crew, as a substitute of the same old 4, to create space for the stranded astronauts.
After a collection of delays, a Dragon spacecraft carrying a aid crew docked on the house station on Sunday.
Challenges Forward For Sunita And Butch
Bone and muscle deterioration, radiation publicity, and imaginative and prescient impairment are a number of the challenges house travellers need to face upon their return to Earth after a chronic keep.
The dearth of gravity causes vital and infrequently irreparable, bone density loss. As per NASA, for each month in house, astronauts’ weight-bearing bones grow to be roughly one per cent much less dense if they do not take precautions to counter this loss.
Muscle mass, normally activated by merely shifting round on Earth, additionally weaken as a result of they not have to work as laborious.
Some of the harmful impacts of spending time in house is radiation publicity. Whereas Earth’s ambiance and magnetic area defend people from excessive ranges of radiation, such safety shouldn’t be out there for astronauts.
PM Modi Writes Letter To Sunita Williams
Yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s letter to Sunita Williams was made public after she started her journey again house from house.
In a letter dated March 1, which was shared by Union Minister Jitendra Singh on X, the Prime Minister stated he had inquired concerning the well-being of Ms Williams – who flew to the orbital lab on June 5 final yr – when he met President Donald Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, throughout his visits to the USA.
“We mentioned how proud we’re of you and your work. Following this interplay, I couldn’t cease myself from writing to you,” PM Modi stated.
“1.4 billion Indians have at all times taken nice satisfaction in your achievements. Latest developments have but once more showcased your inspirational fortitude and perseverance,” he wrote.
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