Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have returned home after their eight-day mission to the International Space Station turned into a nine-month-long ordeal to bring them back. They flew on a Boeing Starliner to space on June 5 last year and returned in SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft this morning.
The space capsule deployed its parachute before a splashdown in the ocean off the coast of Florida. The two astronauts travelled along with NASA’s Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov for 17 hours on their journey home.
The spacecraft initiated a deorbit burn – A manoeuvre in which the spacecraft fires its engines and turns around in the direction it is travelling, helping it slow down – at 2:41 am, before a splash down 44 minutes later at 3:27 am.
Crew-9 undocked at 10:35 am (IST), with NASA sharing a video of the spacecraft detaching from the space station. Elon Musk’s SpaceX was tasked with the responsibility to bring Crew-9 back to Earth. The Dragon capsule atop the Falcon 9 rocket was launched for the mission. Crew-10 has replaced Crew-9 at the International Space Station.
US President Donald Trump has accused the previous Biden administration of abandoning them.
8 Days To 9 Months
Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore, both former Navy pilots, had flown to the orbital lab on June 5 last year on what was supposed to be an eight-day mission and the first crewed flight of a Boeing Starliner. They were left stranded after the Starliner capsule suffered propulsion issues. 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 sent in September with a two-member crew, instead of the usual four, to make space for the stranded astronauts.
After a series of delays, a Dragon spacecraft carrying a relief team docked at the space station on Sunday.
Challenges Ahead For Sunita And Butch
Bone and muscle deterioration, radiation exposure, and vision impairment are some of the challenges space travellers have to face upon their return to Earth after a prolonged stay.
The lack of gravity causes significant and often irreparable, bone density loss. As per NASA, for every month in space, astronauts’ weight-bearing bones become roughly one per cent less dense if they don’t take precautions to counter this loss.
Muscles, usually activated by simply moving around on Earth, also weaken because they no longer need to work as hard.
One of the most dangerous impacts of spending time in space is radiation exposure. While Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field shield humans from high levels of radiation, such protection is not available for astronauts.
PM Modi Writes Letter To Sunita Williams
Yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote a letter to Sunita Williams, who began her journey back home from space.
In a letter dated March 1, which was shared by Union Minister Jitendra Singh on X today, the Prime Minister said he had inquired about the well-being of Ms Williams – who flew to the orbital lab on June 5 last year – when he met President Donald Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, during his visits to the United States.
The letter was made public hours after Ms Williams and her colleague, Butch Wilmore, undocked from the ISS.
“We discussed how proud we are of you and your work. Following this interaction, I could not stop myself from writing to you,” PM Modi said.
“1.4 billion Indians have always taken great pride in your achievements. Recent developments have yet again showcased your inspirational fortitude and perseverance,” he wrote.