Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore Return Safely After 9 Months In Area
Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have returned house after their eight-day mission to the Worldwide Area Station was a nine-month-long ordeal to deliver them again. They flew on a Boeing Starliner to area on June 5 final 12 months and returned in SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft this morning.
The area 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.
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 by which the spacecraft fires its engines and turns round within the route it’s travelling, serving to it decelerate – at 2:41 am, earlier than a splash down 44 minutes later at 3:27 am.
Stay Updates: Sunita Williams’ Spacecraft Splashes Down Close to Florida Coast
Crew-9 undocked at 10:35 am (IST), with NASA sharing a video of the spacecraft detaching from the area station. Elon Musk’s SpaceX was tasked with the duty to deliver 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 Area Station.
US President Donald Trump has accused the earlier Biden administration of abandoning them.
8 Days To 9 Months
Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore, each former Navy pilots, had flown to the orbital lab on June 5 final 12 months on what was purported 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 an alternative of the standard 4, to create space for the stranded astronauts.
After a collection of delays, a Dragon spacecraft carrying a reduction workforce docked on the area station on Sunday.
Challenges Forward For Sunita And Butch
Bone and muscle deterioration, radiation publicity, and imaginative and prescient impairment are a few of the challenges area travellers need to face upon their return to Earth after a protracted keep.
The dearth of gravity causes vital and sometimes irreparable, bone density loss. As per NASA, for each month in area, astronauts’ weight-bearing bones turn out to be roughly one per cent much less dense if they do not take precautions to counter this loss.
Muscle groups, often activated by merely transferring round on Earth, additionally weaken as a result of they not have to work as arduous.
Some of the harmful impacts of spending time in area is radiation publicity. Whereas Earth’s environment and magnetic area defend people from excessive ranges of radiation, such safety shouldn’t be accessible for astronauts.
PM Modi Writes Letter To Sunita Williams
Yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote a letter to Sunita Williams, who started her journey again house from area.
In a letter dated March 1, which was shared by Union Minister Jitendra Singh on X at present, the Prime Minister stated he had inquired concerning the well-being of Ms Williams – who flew to the orbital lab on June 5 final 12 months – when he met President Donald Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, throughout his visits to the USA.
The letter was made public hours after Ms Williams and her colleague, Butch Wilmore, undocked from the ISS.
“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 pleasure in your achievements. Latest developments have but once more showcased your inspirational fortitude and perseverance,” he wrote.
