NASA's Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore stuck in space back on Earth after 286 days; White House reacts | 10 points
ByHT News Desk | Written by Shivam Pratap Singh
Mar 19, 2025 07:24 AM IST
Sunita Williams' mission, originally scheduled for just a few days, became a nine-month-long saga that echoed in the political echelons of the United States.
Sunita Williams is finally back on Earth on Wednesday after a long, drawn-out stay on the International Space Station. While it wasn't her first stint in orbit, it certainly became the most closely watched and scrutinized one.
Gurukul School of Art teacher makes painting to welcome Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, in Mumbai on Tuesday.(ANI)
Gurukul School of Art teacher makes painting to welcome Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, in Mumbai on Tuesday.(ANI)
Her mission, originally scheduled for just a few days, became a nine-month-long saga that echoed in the political echelons of the United States. President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk blamed the previous administration for ‘abandoning’ them'.
With Tuesday’s splashdown finally drawing the saga to a close, here is Sunita Williams' return to Earth in 10 points.
Sunita Williams' homecoming| 10 points
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, two veteran NASA astronauts and retired US Navy test pilots, had launched into space as Starliner's first crew in June last year for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission. However, issues with Starliner's propulsion system led to cascading delays in their return home.
In August, NASA decided that the Starliner spacecraft that took them to space would return without them while they waited for the SpaceX Dragon crew. The Crew Dragon spacecraft went to the ISS with two empty seats and the Starliner returned without a crew in September.
Williams and Wilmore tweaked their mission and had been doing scientific research and conducting routine maintenance with the station's other five astronauts. Williams performed two six-hour spacewalks for maintenance outside the ISS, including one with Wilmore.
Williams, capping her third spaceflight, has tallied 608 cumulative days in space, the second most for any US astronaut after Peggy Whitson's 675 days. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko set the world record last year at 878 cumulative days.
The mission has captured the attention of US President Donald Trump, who upon taking office in January called for a quicker return of Wilmore and Williams and alleged that former President Joe Biden ‘abandoned’ them on the ISS for political reasons. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a close adviser to Trump, echoed his call.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon docked at the International Space Station on Friday with the replacement crew, paving the way for the return of Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore. After a brief handover period, the same spacecraft undocked after midnight on Tuesday to begin a 17-hour journey back to Earth.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote to Williams, who is of Indian origin, to invite her to visit the country upon her return.
The four-person crew, formally part of NASA's Crew-9 astronaut rotation mission, re-entered Earth's atmosphere around 5:45 p.m. ET. Using Earth's atmosphere and two sets of parachutes, the craft slowed its orbital speed of roughly 17,000 miles per hour to a soft 17 miles per hour at splashdown, which occurred some 50 miles off Florida's Gulf Coast ten minutes later under clear skies.
The crew's capsule was hoisted out of the water onto a boat. The astronauts will be flown on a NASA plane to their crew quarters at the space agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston for several days of health checks, per routine for astronaut returns, before NASA flight surgeons say they can go home to their families. Sunita Williams' native village in India erupted in celebration soon after the splashdown.
The White House reiterated the claim made by Donald Trump that he accelerated the return of the two astronauts, saying ‘promises made, promises kept’.
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