Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the American astronauts who stranded on the International Space Station for nine months, finally made it home on Tuesday, March 18. They returned to Earth with the two members of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission-Nick Haag and Russian cosanaut Alexandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos-Aboard SpaceX’s Dragon FreedomceCraft.
The four crew successfully splashed EDT along the coast of Florida at about 5:57 p.m. Teams aboard SpaceX Recovery Craft assisted Dragon Freedom on board and the crew. The astronauts were then flown to the Johnson Space Center of Nasa in Houston to be reunited with their families.
Sunita Lyn “Suni” Williams (59) and Barry Eugene “Butch” Wilmore (62) lifted on June 5, 2024, on a mission to transport Starliner, a Boeing spacecraft designed to transport crew to and from the ISS and other destinations in a low earth. The astronauts did not plan to spend more than two weeks in space, but technical problems with Starliner have put the plan on hold.
As it approached the space station, some of Starliner’s bricks stopped working. Although the Boeing spacecraft managed to dock at the ISS, Nasa chose not to take any risks with the return and chose to send Starliner back without the crew on board. The spacecraft ended up safely in September.
While Williams and Wilmore’s extensive stay in space was not planned, they trained because they may have to stay on the ISS for a number of months. Both also have extensive experience in spatial expeditions, including previous stay in the ISS.
To return the astronauts, Nasa decided to send only two astronauts instead of four on the subsequent SpaceX mission. Williams and Wilmore would drive back into the two vacant seats in the SpaceX vehicle. After a few delays, that mission crew-9, with The Hague and Gorbunov on board on September 28, 2024, raised the ISS.
But that was not the end of Williams and Wilmore’s stay on the space station. It was still necessary to wait for the next mission to arrive at the ISS to leave the space station with a sufficient number of staff to operate it. So, even after Crew-9 arrived, Williams and Wilmore had to wait for the arrival of CRW-10-which only happened on March 14-to be free to return to Earth.
While the stranded astronauts were prepared for this inconvenience, their condition became a political issue between the administrations of US presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX and a leading figure in the second Trump administration, accused the Biden administration of abandoning the astronauts on the ISS. Shortly after he was inaugurated, President Trump asked Musk to return the stranded astronauts as soon as possible.
“Promise made, promise kept: President Trump promised to save the astronauts stranded in space for nine months. Today they splashed safely in the Gulf of America, thanks to the
@Elonmusk, @spacex, and @nasa! ”The official White House account posted on X on Tuesday to the SplashDown.
“We are excited to have Suni, Butch, Nick and Aleksandr at home after their months -long mission that makes important science, technology demonstrations and maintenance on board the International Space Station,” acting administrator Janet Petro said in a statement. “According to President Trump’s leadership, Nasa and SpaceX worked diligently to pull the schedule a month earlier. This international crew and our teams on the ground embraced the Trump administration’s challenge for an updated and somewhat unique, mission plan, to bring our crew home.”
According to Nasa, Williams and Wilmore traveled 195 million kilometers during their mission, spent 286 days in space and completed 4.576 lanes around the earth.
This story originally appeared on Wired and Español and was translated from Spanish.