Astronauts Back on Earth Following Extended Stay in Orbit
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams made a remarkable return to Earth on Tuesday, landing safely in the ocean off the Florida coast in a SpaceX capsule. Their return followed a nine-month mission, a significant deviation from the...
TroibNews 
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams made a remarkable return to Earth on Tuesday, landing safely in the ocean off the Florida coast in a SpaceX capsule. Their return followed a nine-month mission, a significant deviation from the originally planned eight-day stay aboard the International Space Station due to a malfunction in their Boeing Starliner spacecraft.
Alongside NASA’s Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, Wilmore and Williams undocked from the ISS at 1:05 am ET on Tuesday, embarking on a 17-hour journey back to Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. The crew, part of NASA’s Crew-9 astronaut rotation, successfully splashed down off Tallahassee, Florida, at 5:57 pm ET.
“What a ride,” remarked Nick Hague, the Crew-9 mission commander, right after splashing down. “I see a capsule full of grins, ear to ear.”
Once the vessel was lifted from the water onto a recovery ship, the astronauts were set to be flown to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for routine health checks before being cleared to reunite with their families.
The journey began on June 5 of the previous year, when Williams, 59, and Wilmore, 62, launched to carry out a test of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, intended to compete with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Unfortunately, upon reaching the ISS, they encountered significant problems with the Starliner, including five helium leaks, issues with thruster pressurization, and a malfunctioning propellant valve.
Due to these complications, NASA determined that returning the astronauts on the Boeing Starliner posed too many risks, leading to their integration into the ISS’s regular crew rotation. After a series of delays, the Starliner was returned to Earth without crew in September. In the same month, the Crew-9 capsule arrived at the ISS carrying Hague and Gorbunov, with two seats saved for Wilmore and Williams for their eventual return.
Shortly after taking office in January, US President Donald Trump pushed SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to bring Wilmore and Williams home while criticizing former President Joe Biden for leaving them “stranded.” NASA officials, however, clarified that the decision to extend the astronauts’ stay stemmed from operational considerations rather than political factors.
This situation posed a challenge for Boeing, as it had to rely on its competitor to return the astronauts from the first crewed test flight of the Starliner. The future of the Starliner program remains in question.
During their time in space, Wilmore and Williams spent a total of 286 days in orbit—a lengthy mission but still short of the record of 437 days held by the late Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov.
Max Fischer contributed to this article for TROIB News
Alongside NASA’s Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, Wilmore and Williams undocked from the ISS at 1:05 am ET on Tuesday, embarking on a 17-hour journey back to Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. The crew, part of NASA’s Crew-9 astronaut rotation, successfully splashed down off Tallahassee, Florida, at 5:57 pm ET.
“What a ride,” remarked Nick Hague, the Crew-9 mission commander, right after splashing down. “I see a capsule full of grins, ear to ear.”
Once the vessel was lifted from the water onto a recovery ship, the astronauts were set to be flown to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for routine health checks before being cleared to reunite with their families.
The journey began on June 5 of the previous year, when Williams, 59, and Wilmore, 62, launched to carry out a test of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, intended to compete with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. Unfortunately, upon reaching the ISS, they encountered significant problems with the Starliner, including five helium leaks, issues with thruster pressurization, and a malfunctioning propellant valve.
Due to these complications, NASA determined that returning the astronauts on the Boeing Starliner posed too many risks, leading to their integration into the ISS’s regular crew rotation. After a series of delays, the Starliner was returned to Earth without crew in September. In the same month, the Crew-9 capsule arrived at the ISS carrying Hague and Gorbunov, with two seats saved for Wilmore and Williams for their eventual return.
Shortly after taking office in January, US President Donald Trump pushed SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to bring Wilmore and Williams home while criticizing former President Joe Biden for leaving them “stranded.” NASA officials, however, clarified that the decision to extend the astronauts’ stay stemmed from operational considerations rather than political factors.
This situation posed a challenge for Boeing, as it had to rely on its competitor to return the astronauts from the first crewed test flight of the Starliner. The future of the Starliner program remains in question.
During their time in space, Wilmore and Williams spent a total of 286 days in orbit—a lengthy mission but still short of the record of 437 days held by the late Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov.
Max Fischer contributed to this article for TROIB News
Discover more Science and Technology news updates in TROIB Sci-Tech
