NASA Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore finally return home.
Astronauts, who had planned to visit the International Space Station for just a week, but have been there for more than nine months, will leave Tuesday.
His trip back to Earth will close an unusual chapter and observed closely in the history of space flight. Williams and Wilmore became known names after throwing themselves in the first crew test flight of the Boeing Starliner capsule in June. But they found problems with the propellants of the vehicle while they coupled to the space station, which eventually led NASA to bring the Starliner back to the earth without anyone on board.
That forced Williams and Wilmore to remain in orbit for much longer than planned. But finally, they are scheduled to start from the space station on Tuesday at 1:05 am et aboard a Dragon Spacex capsule. Astronauts must splashed on the Florida coast at 5:57 pm et.
Next to them will be the NASA astronaut NASA Hague and the Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who are finishing a mission of approximately six months at the space station.
The particular moment of the group’s return flight on Tuesday was decided “based on favorable conditions predicted for the night of Tuesday, March 18,” NASA said in a statement. (The agency previously went on Wednesday for the trip).
The SpaceX vehicle that the four arrived at the Space Station in September, transporting Hague and Gorbunov, along with two empty seats to accommodate their colleagues. Williams and Wilmore stayed for Haya and Gorbunov to complete their mission.
That is now ending when a new set of astronauts takes over. On Sunday, Williams, Wilmore, Hague and Gorbunov welcomed the incoming crew, NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and the Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, at the end of the orbiting.
In that sense, despite the attention that their extraordinary circumstances have attracted, Williams and Wilmore were not “stranded” in space. Both have repeatedly challenged that characterization, maintaining that they have enjoyed their prolonged time living and working in low orbit.
“Every day is interesting because we are in space and it is very fun,” Williams said at a news conference earlier this month, but added that waiting and uncertainty was probably difficult for family members on the ground.
However, his unexpectedly long stay in orbit has become a point of political conversation for the CEO of Spacex Elon Musk and President Donald Trump. Both have made statements without the foundation that the Biden administration held the flight back to earth for political reasons.
After Musk said so much In a joint interview with Trump in Fox News last month, a round -trip audience broke out in X between musk and several current and retired astronauts. European astronaut Andreas Mogensen called Musk’s comments a “lie”, and things got ugly after Musk backed up, calling Mogensen an “idiot” and a derogatory term. Revotted astronauts Scott Kelly, Mark Kelly and Chris Hadfield also got into the online dispute.
Trump has said in a similar way that he commissioned Musk to bring astronauts home. However, NASA’s plan to use a Spacex vehicle for the return trip has remained relatively consistent since it was announced in August.
In the recent news session, Williams and Wilmore carefully bordered the policy, with Wilmore saying that they had “respect and admiration” for the president and “the greatest respect for Mr. Musk.”
But in response to a question about recent comments, Musk suggested that the United States should leave the International Space Station in two years instead of keeping it in operation until 2030 as planned, Williams expressed his disagreement.
“I would say we are really at our best time at this time,” he said. “I think at this time it probably is not the right time to leave it.”
