Stuck in space no extra, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams returned to Earth on Tuesday (March 18, 2025), hitching a distinct trip house to shut out a saga that started with a bungled check flight greater than 9 months in the past.
(*9*)SpaceX crew Dragon splashdown LIVE
Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico in the early night, simply hours after departing the International Space Station. Splashdown occurred off the coast of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle, bringing their unplanned odyssey to an finish.
It all began with a flawed Boeing check flight final spring.
The two are anticipated to be gone only a week or so after launching on Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule on June 5. So many issues cropped up on the way in which to the space station that NASA ultimately despatched Starliner again empty and transferred the check pilots to SpaceX, pushing their homecoming into February. Then SpaceX capsule points added one other month’s delay.
Sunday’s arrival of their reduction crew meant Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams might lastly go away. NASA lower them free a little bit early, given the iffy climate forecast later this week. They checked out with NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov, who arrived in their very own SpaceX capsule final fall with two empty seats reserved for the Starliner duo.
Mr. Wilmore and Ms. Williams ended up spending 286 days in space — 278 days longer than anticipated once they launched. They circled Earth 4,576 occasions and traveled 121 million miles (195 million kilometers) by the point of splashdown.
Their plight captured the world’s consideration, giving new which means to the phrase “stuck at work” and turning “Butch and Suni” 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.
Published – March 19, 2025 03:52 am IST
