NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have safely returned home after their week-long mission at the International Space Station turned into a nine-month-long gravity-free, weightless ordeal. On June 5, last year, Williams and Wilmore had flown on a Boeing Starliner for what was an eight-day mission. After several failed attempts, the astronauts successfully returned in a SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft in early morning hours (IST) on Wednesday.
After nearly 17-hour long journey hurtling back home to planet Earth, Williams and Wilmore successfully landed in Gulf of Mexico off Florida coast. NASA described the splashdown as ‘spectacular.’ Moments before the parachutes opened and spacecraft gently hit the water off the coast of Tallahassee, NASA’s Sandra Jones remarked, “There’s just breath-taking views of a calm, glass-like ocean.” In a somewhat muffled audio, Crew-9 commander Nick Hague could be heard saying everyone is “grinning ear to ear.”
Moments later, SpaceX rescue ships swept in to throw a rig onboard to haul the spacecraft out of the water into what is called as the “Dragon’s nest.”
Sunita Williams' Return Live: NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts return to Earth
Other members of rescue teams kept a close tab and made sure that the capsule was not damaged or leaking any dangerous fuels. Soon, the big moment arrived and the capsule door of Crew Dragon was opened. As per the protocol, the astronauts were taken on stretcher. Bot Williams and Wilmore were seen smiling and showing thumbs up sign as they were taken out of the capsule on a stretcher. Families of both NASA astronauts are waiting for them in Texas. The emotional scenes of reunion will soon happen once Williams and Wilmore arrive at Johnson Space Center in Houston, which is NASA’s home base.
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