NASA Astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams have returned to Earth this Tuesday afternoon at 10:57 p.m. in Spain (5:57 p.m. in Florida). The live transmission of NASA has shown its vehicle to reach the coastal waters of Florida. His return ends a long saga that has led the agency to question the safety of manned space flights in years.
Wilmore and Williams are experienced astronauts, former Navy pilots. After landing, they turn 285 days at the space station and have orbited the land almost 4,600 times.
This flight was expected to last about 10 days between the trip and the stay in the orbital complex, but the Starliner experienced problems with the propellers during the approach to the station. Then, NASA delayed the return of the capsule to investigate the problem. The agency finally decided to return Starliner to the land without safety crew on September 7, and incorporated Wilmore and Williams in the long -term mission of expedition 72 to the space station.
This plan was expected that Wilmore and Williams returned to the ground in the Freedom ship, which was launched at the end of September on the CREW-9 mission of Spacex. Freedom only took Hague and Gorbunov as a first leg to reserve seats for Starliner astronauts on the descent trip.
Splashdown confirm! #Crew9 Is now Back on Earth in their @Spacex Dragon Spacecraft. pic.twitter.com/g5tvyqfbau
– NASA (@NASA) March 18, 2025
During their prolonged stay, Sunita, 59, and Butch, 62, have been collaborating in the ongoing missions of the station with maintenance and experiments, and have made space walks. Sunita went outside on mid -January with her partner astronaut Nick Hague to make repairs on the ship. She and Butch came out together at the end of the month. Their tasks included the repair of the equipment that regulates the orientation of the station, the installation of light filters in the X -ray telescope Nicer and the replacement of a reflector in an international coupling adapter.
#Crew9 Will Be Difficult To Spot In The Daytime As It Resentrs Earth’s Atmosphere, But If You Want To Keep An Eye Out For @Spacex‘S Dragon As It Heads Home Today, We have the Map for You. pic.twitter.com/dgmswxboyv
– NASA (@NASA) March 18, 2025
After Wilmore, Williams and two other crew members are recovered, the group will travel to the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston to submit for several days to medical reviews by the agency’s flight surgeons.
Hmm
