NASA -astronauter Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore is finally back on earth. The two spent more than eight months at the International Space Station, although they initially expected to stay for about eight days. The capsule sprayed down the coast of Tallahasee, Florida, Tuesday afternoon.
Parachutes lowered their capsule into the water. A SpaceX Recovery ship brings the capsule on board and the crew will catch a helicopter back to land.
A relief crew placed to ISS just after midnight on a Sunday after two days of delays that came of the ground, the first due to a hydraulic system problem with a ground support commission for Spacex Falcon 9 rocket, the second due to the weather. But on Friday at. 19:03 EN, crew-10, consisting of NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, launched Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Kirill Peskov on their trip to ISS. And on Sunday, SpaceX dragon -spacing vessel at the Orbiting complex docked at 1 p.m. 12:04 one, while the station was approx. 260 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. At. 1:35 an opened The Hatch, and the new crew was greeted by the current space station crew, including Williams and Wilmore.
Williams and Wilmore traveled 121,347,491 miles during their mission, spent 286 days in space and completed 4,576 orbit around the Earth, NASA reported.
Read more: NASA Crew-10 Astronauts Launch to ISS on SpaceX Rocket
On March 7, William’s command of ISS turned to Roscosmos Cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin as she was preparing to return home.
‘We are not stuck’
Williams told PBS Newshour recently that they did not feel abandoned by NASA.
“Obviously, there is a lot of discussion about it, so maybe people could imagine that this is how we are, but we are not stuck,” she said. “We’re part of a bigger process, right?”
When asked about the practicality of suddenly being in the room much longer than expected without extra supplies, Wilmore said it was not a problem.
“We launched with fewer clothes if you want, and it was intentional,” he said. “We brought up some extra gear that was needed – the necessary space station. We brought it up with us. So we took off some of our clothes. We should only be here for a week or so.
“But we did it. It wasn’t a big deal, honest. The space station program is planning for more eventualities. We store food to last four months beyond what’s expected, as a minimum. Some – most times it’s longer than that, food and other facilities, wet wipes, all you need here.”
Wilmore told PBS he was able to talk to his family from space.
Read more: NASA’s first interactive twitch stream shows how much astronauts love coffee
Record Spacewalk
Because their stay was expanded, Williams set a record. She went on a 5-hour 26-minute spacewalk with Wilmore and surpassed with that walk the record set by a woman for time spent on space walks. According to Space.com, Williams now has 62 hours, 6 minutes of space walking that surpasses former astronaut Peggy Whitson, who had 60 hours, 21 minutes.
On this latest space hike, the two worked to finally remove a defective radio communication unit, one that astronauts of two former space hikers could not remove.
Williams previously collaborated with astronaut Nick Hague on a space walk on January 16. On that space walk, Williams and Hague replaced a speed GYRO assembly that helps preserve the orientation of Orbital Outpost, NASA said. Astronauts also installed patches to cover damaged areas with light filters on Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer X-ray file cup, replaced a reflector unit on one of the international docking adapters and controlled access areas and plug tools that astronauts will use for future maintenance of alpha-magnet spectrometer.
NASA -astrronaut Suni Williams is seen outside the International Space Station under 16 January 2025, Spacewalk.
Who are the astronauts?
Wilmore, 61, and Williams, 58, are veteran astronauts, naval officers and former test pilots. Williams has been a NASA astrronaut since 1998 and Wilmore since 2000. Both have plenty of experience in space.
Williams is the former record holder for the most space walks of a woman (seven) and the most space walking time of a woman (50 hours, 40 minutes), and in 2007 she ran the first marathon of any person in space.
In 2009, Wilmore Space Shuttle Atlantis piloted on his mission to ISS, and in 2014 he was part of the ISS crew that used a 3D printer to manufacture a tool-a ratchet screw key-in space, the first time people produced something off-world.
What was their original mission in space?
Wilmore, as commander, and Williams, as a pilot, traveled to ISS on a 15-foot wide, Boeing-made capsule called Starliner. They were launched on June 5 and rooted with ISS on June 6th. NASA HOPES Starliner will give the organization a new way to get crews to and from ISS, and the fact that it’s Boeing-Made is another sign that NASA is starting to lean on the private sector for its human space opportunities, the New York Times reported.
Wilmore and Williams’ ISS missions should last only eight days where they would test aspects of Starliner and see how it works with a human crew in space. But complications with Starliner stretched out and put the two in regular news headlines as people back on earth speculated and worried about their return.
Wilmore and Williams answer media questions back in March last year.
How did they get stuck in the room in the first place?
Starliner was delayed in May due to a problem with a valve in the rocket. Then engineers had to fix a helium leak. It is all bad news for Boeing, competing with SpaceX that has transported astronauts to ISS since 2020 and has made over 20 successful trips to the space station.
On June 5, Starliner finally launched on top of an atlas V rocket, but some problems arose with the launch. NASA announced that three helium leaks were identified, one of which was known before flight, and two new ones. In addition to the leaks, the crew had to troubleshoot unsuccessful controls, although the vessel was able to dock with ISS.
SpaceX has also had mistakes. A Falcon 9 rocket exploded on Launchpad in 2016. In July this year, a Falcon 9 -rocket experienced a floating oxygen leak and put his satellites in the wrong course, the New York Times reported. In addition, at the end of August, a Falcon 9 rocket lost a Falcon 9 rocket a first-step booster as it overturned into the Atlantic and fired fire.
But that said, SpaceX has more than 300 successful Falcon 9 aircraft for its credit.
Stuck in space: A timeline
- May: The Starliner launch delayed due to a problem with a valve in the rocket, and then a helium leak.
- June 5: Starliner is launched with Williams and Wilmore on board.
- June 6: Starliner dock with ISS despite having treated three helium leaks and failed controls.
- September 6: Starliner departs ISS and lands in New Mexico and leaves Williams and Wilmore afterwards.
- September 28: SpaceX Crew-9 Mission is launched with Hague and Gorbunov on a dragon room vessel.
- September 29: SpaceX Dragon Docks with ISS.
- December 17: NASA announces the launch of four crew to ISS will be delayed from February to the end of March.
- March 12: Crew-10, NASA astronauts, Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, were delayed by one day, then again the following day.
- March 14: Crew-10 was launched on their 28-hour journey to ISS.
- March 16: Crew-10 arrived just after midnight Sunday. A two-day transfer period began.
- March 18: SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft safely sprayed into the water off Florida with Williams, Wilmore, The Hague and Gorbunov.