Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore have returned to Earth after a nine-month keep on the Worldwide House Station (ISS) — a visit that lasted far longer than initially deliberate due to leaks and thruster issues on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they used to get there.
Williams and Wilmore splashed down within the Gulf of Mexico in a SpaceX Dragon capsule at 5:57 p.m. ET on Tuesday, after a 17-hour return journey from the ISS.
Their return marks the tip of one of many stranger chapters in current spaceflight historical past, due to the issues that Boeing’s Starliner skilled and the best way that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has politicized the astronauts’ return.
Williams and Wilmore initially launched to the ISS in June 2024 as a part of a mission that was essential to Boeing’s try to compete with SpaceX. The aviation behemoth received a contract alongside SpaceX in 2014 to ship astronauts to the ISS for NASA with a watch on finally carrying them even farther out into the photo voltaic system.
SpaceX carried out its first crewed flight with its Crew Dragon spacecraft in 2020 — throughout the early days of the COVID pandemic. Boeing’s Starliner challenge, in the meantime, was dragged down by value overruns and delays.
The flight in June 2024 was supposed to assist Boeing look previous all that. The aim was to ship Williams and Wilmore to the ISS after which carry them again dwelling after a brief keep. However Starliner skilled issues earlier than they even docked with the ISS. As soon as the astronauts lastly acquired aboard, NASA and Boeing spent a couple of weeks performing assessments earlier than deciding to carry Starliner again with out them.
NASA shortly began working with SpaceX on a plan to carry Willams and Wilmore again. After some back-and-forth, they determined to attend till early 2025 to carry the duo dwelling in order that the ISS wouldn’t be short-staffed.
In current months, although, Musk has claimed (with out offering any proof) that he provided to carry the astronauts dwelling earlier — and that former president Joe Biden declined the provide as a result of it will assist his political rival Donald Trump.
NASA’s former administrator and deputy administrator underneath Biden have each mentioned the house company was not conscious of any provide. CNN reported on Tuesday that senior White Home officers additionally declare they weren’t conscious of any provide.
Watch the crew return to earth:
This story was up to date to incorporate a video of the astronauts returning.
