Stuck in space no more, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams returned to Earth on Tuesday, hitching a different ride home to close out a saga that began with a bungled test flight more than nine months ago.<\/p>\n
Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico in the early evening, just hours after departing the International Space Station. Splashdown occurred off the coast of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle, bringing their unplanned odyssey to an end.<\/p>\n
Within an hour, the astronauts were out of their capsule, waving and smiling at the cameras while being hustled away in reclining stretchers for routine medical checks.<\/p>\n
It all started with a flawed Boeing test flight last spring.<\/p>\n
The two expected to be gone just a week or so after launching on Boeing\u2019s new Starliner crew capsule on June 5. So many problems cropped up on the way to the space station that NASA eventually sent Starliner back empty and transferred the test pilots to SpaceX, pushing their homecoming into February. Then SpaceX capsule issues added another month\u2019s delay.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s arrival of their relief crew meant Wilmore and Williams could finally leave. NASA cut them loose a little early, given the iffy weather forecast later this week. They checked out with NASA\u2019s Nick Hague and Russia\u2019s Alexander Gorbunov, who arrived in their own SpaceX capsule last fall with two empty seats reserved for the Starliner duo.<\/p>\n
Wilmore and Williams ended up spending 286 days in space \u2014 278 days longer than anticipated when they launched. They circled Earth 4,576 times and traveled 121 million miles (195 million kilometers) by the time of splashdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn behalf of SpaceX, welcome home,\u201d radioed SpaceX Mission Control in California.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a ride,\u201d replied Hague, the capsule\u2019s commander. \u201cI see a capsule full of grins ear to ear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dolphins circled the capsule as divers readied it for hoisting onto the recovery ship. Once safely on board, the side hatch was opened and the astronauts were helped out, one by one. Williams was next-to-last out, followed by Wilmore who gave two gloved thumbs-up.<\/p>\n
Wilmore and Williams\u2019 plight captured the world\u2019s attention, giving new meaning to the phrase \u201cstuck at work\u201d and turning \u201cButch and Suni\u201d into household names. While other astronauts had logged longer spaceflights over the decades, none had to deal with so much uncertainty or see the length of their mission expand by so much.<\/p>\n
Wilmore and Williams quickly transitioned from guests to full-fledged station crew members, conducting experiments, fixing equipment and even spacewalking together. With 62 hours over nine spacewalks, Williams set a record: the most time spent spacewalking over a career among female astronauts.<\/p>\n
Both had lived on the orbiting lab before and knew the ropes, and brushed up on their station training before rocketing away. Williams became the station\u2019s commander three months into their stay and held the post until earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Their mission took an unexpected twist in late January when President Donald Trump asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to accelerate the astronauts\u2019 return and blamed the delay on the Biden administration. The replacement crew\u2019s brand new SpaceX capsule still wasn\u2019t ready to fly, so SpaceX subbed it with a used one, hurrying things along by at least a few weeks.<\/p>\n
After splashdown, Musk offered his congratulations via X. NASA\u2019s Joel Montalbano said the space agency was already looking at various options when Trump made his call to hurry the astronauts home.<\/p>\n
Even in the middle of the political storm, Wilmore and Williams continued to maintain an even keel at public appearances from orbit, casting no blame and insisting they supported NASA\u2019s decisions from the start.<\/p>\n
NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing after the shuttle program ended, in order to have two competing U.S. companies for transporting astronauts to and from the space station until it\u2019s abandoned in 2030 and steered to a fiery reentry. By then, it will have been up there more than three decades; the plan is to replace it with privately run stations so NASA can focus on moon and Mars expeditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has been nine months in the making, and I couldn\u2019t be prouder of our team\u2019s versatility, our team\u2019s ability to adapt and really build for the future of human spaceflight,\u201d NASA\u2019s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said.<\/p>\n
With Starliner still under engineering investigation, SpaceX will launch the next crew for NASA as soon as July. Stich said NASA will have until summer to decide whether the crew after that one will be flown by SpaceX or Boeing \u2014 or whether Boeing will have to prove itself by flying cargo before people again.<\/p>\n
Both retired Navy captains, Wilmore and Williams stressed they didn\u2019t mind spending more time in space \u2014 a prolonged deployment reminiscent of their military days. But they acknowledged it was tough on their families.<\/p>\n
Wilmore, 62, missed most of his younger daughter\u2019s senior year of high school; his older daughter is in college. Williams, 59, had to settle for internet calls from space to her husband, mother and other relatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not been worried about her because she has been in good spirits,\u201d said Falguni Pandya, who is married to Williams\u2019 cousin. \u201cShe was definitely ready to come home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prayers for Williams and Wilmore were offered up at 21 Hindu temples in the U.S. in the months leading up to their return, said organizer Tejal Shah, president of World Hindu Council of America. Williams has spoken frequently about her Indian and Slovenian heritage. Prayers for their safe return also came from Wilmore\u2019s Baptist church in Houston, where he serves as an elder.<\/p>\n
Crowds in Jhulasan, the ancestral home of Williams\u2019 father, danced and celebrated in a temple and performed rituals during the homecoming.<\/p>\n
After returning in the gulf \u2014 Trump in January signed an executive order renaming the body of water Gulf of America \u2014 Wilmore and Williams will have to wait until they\u2019re off the SpaceX recovery ship and flown to Houston before reuniting with their loved ones. The three NASA astronauts will be checked out by flight surgeons as they adjust to gravity, officials said, and should be allowed to go home after a day or two.<\/p>\n
Source: AP<\/p>\n
–Agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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