Two NASA astronauts splashed down in the Gulf of America, off the coast of Tallahassee in Florida, after spending over nine months stranded in space, according to Sky News.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams’ journey, alongside two other astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) in a SpaceX capsule named “Freedom,” took a harrowing 17 hours, ending a marathon of over nine months stuck in space.
The pair’s stay at the ISS, which was only supposed to last for 8 days, unexpectedly took a wild turn. They experienced a technical problem with the spacecraft they arrived on, leading to an extension. This technical problem then caused a blast off of their rocket from Earth on June 5, 2024.
Their landing off the coast of Tallahassee was described as “beautiful” by Senior NASA Administrator Joel Montalbaro, as he explains that Suni and Butch’s 150 experiments, as well as their 900 hours of research will be a bedrock of information for future moon missions.
Their eight-day mission was supposed to be them testing out Boeing’s Starliner in space, which was an alternative to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. At the time of the mission launch, Boeing’s Starliner was the only shuttle for US, European, Canadian, and Japanese astronauts to travel to and fro the ISS.
Unfortunately for them, after docking at the ISS, the Starliner immediately suffered major problems such as five helium leaks, five dead maneuvering thrusters, and a propellant valve that could not close completely, making it impossible for them to return to Earth with it due to safety reasons.
They also could not return due to NASA’s astronaut schedule, as they had to wait until a replacement crew arrived to maintain a sufficient level of U.S. staffing.
As they waited in space, they often engaged in spacewalks and worked on several experiments.
The pair of astronauts, seen coming out with a smile on their faces from the Freedom capsule, say they enjoyed their mission, with Suni going as far as calling the space station her “happy place.”
The SpaceX capsule that is reported to have brought them home arrived at the ISS in September 2024, transporting NASA’s Nick Hague and Russian astronaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, alongside two empty seats.
Entering into Earth’s atmosphere again and with the usage of two parachutes, the spacecraft slowed its orbital speed of approximately 17,000 miles per hour to a soft 17 miles per hour at touchdown.
As reported by the Canadian Medical Association Journal, human muscle mass can fall by approximately 20% in two weeks and 30% on a three-to-six-month mission, amongst other impairments. As such, Suni and Butch will be flown to NASA’s Johnson Space Center, their crew quarters located in Houston for several days of consistent health checkups, per NASA’s schedule for astronaut homecoming, according to NASA.
“The crew’s doing great…. eventually they’ll make their way back to Houston,” says NASA manager Steve Stich. He also tells reporters that the pair will both get a “well-deserved time off” with their families once NASA is done examining the situation, according to Sky News.
