Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, American astronauts trapped in nine months International Space StationFinally went home on Tuesday, March 18. They returned to Earth with two members of SpaceX Crew-9 MissionNasa's Nick Hague and Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos, Aboard Spacex's Free dragon spacecraft.
Four crews successfully launched from the Florida coast at 5:57 pm EDT. The teams on the SpaceX Recovery Craft board went to Dragon Freedom and supported the crew. The astronauts then flew to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to reunite with their families.
Sunita Lyn recovery Suni Williams, 59 years old and Barry Eugene recovered with Wilmore, 62, Given on June 5, 2024In a mission to test Starliner, a Boeing spacecraft is designed to transport crew to and from ISS and other destinations in the low Earth orbit. The astronauts did not plan for more than two weeks in space, but Technical problem With Starliner hindered that plan.
As it approached the space station, some Starliner's push sets stopped working. Although the Boeing spacecraft managed at the ISS, NASA did not like to bear any risks with its return and chose. Send Starliner back to Earth There is no crew on board. The spacecraft landed safely in September.
While the prolonged stay of Williams and Wilmore had no plan, they were trained because they were likely to stay in the ISS for a few months. The two also have a lot of experience in space explorations, including previous stays in the ISS.
Let the astronaut return home, NASA decided Only send two astronauts instead of the next four of SpaceX missions. Williams and Wilmore will return to the Earth on two empty seats in the SpaceX car. After a number of delays, that task was Crew-9, with Hague and Gorbunov on the train took place on September 28, 2024, bound to the ISS.
But this did not mark the end of Williams and Wilmore at the space station. It is still necessary to wait for the next task to the ISS to leave the space station with a full number of employees to operate it. Therefore, even after Crew-9 came, Williams and Wilmore had to wait for the appearance of the 10-10 crew, which did not happen until March 14, was free to return to Earth.
While the trapped astronauts have been prepared for these inconveniences, their situation has become a political issue between the US presidents. Joe Biden And Donald Trump. Elon MuskThe owner of SpaceX and a leading character in the second Trump administration, accused the Biden administration to abandon the astronauts on the ISS. Immediately after being inaugurated, President Trump Musk asked To return the trapped astronauts as soon as possible.
The promise was made, Promise kept: President Trump pledged to rescue the astronauts trapped in space for nine months. Today, they have safely thrown in the US Gulf, thanks to
@Elonmusk, @spacex and @nasa! Official White House account Posted on x On Tuesday after the sensational crop.
We are happy to have Suni, Butch, Nick and Aleksandr after their monthly tasks perform important science, technology and maintenance on the international space station. In a statement. Under the direction of President Trump, NASA and SpaceX worked hard to pull the schedule a month earlier. This international team and our teams on the ground have accepted the Trump administration's challenge about a updated and somewhat unique mission, to bring our crew home.
According to NASA, Williams and Wilmore went 195 million in their mission, spent 286 days in space and completed 4,576 orbit around the Earth.
This story initially appeared on Wired in Spanish And was translated from Spanish.