NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are headed back to Earth on a 17-hour ride with Crew 9 commander Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov after being stranded in space for 286 days.
Williams and Wilmore had to extend their mission time and again after issues arose with the Boeing Starliner capsule’s thrusters while docking to the space station. As such, the two American astronauts had to remain in orbit for far more time than initially planned for 8 days. The duo spent a total of 286 days and 7 hours spanning 4,576 orbits and 121 million miles in space.
But now they are headed back to Earth. Williams and Wilmore departed the International Space Station on Tuesday at 1:05 a.m. ET aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule Freedom. They are expected to splash down off Flordia’s Gulf Coast of Tallahassee at 5:57 p.m. ET.
Also Read: Belgrade Protests 2025: Thousands Take to Streets For Anti-Corruption Rally
Crew 9 Coming Home
Hague, Freedom’s commander, said it was a privilege to call the space station home, to live and work and be a part of a mission and team that spans the globe working together in cooperation for the benefit of humanity.
Williams and Wilmore had shared their love for space while stuck on the International Space Station. The latter said that it has been tiring at times. “But ‘stranded’? No. ‘Stuck?’ No. ‘Abandoned’? No.”
