Photo Credit:Associated Press
Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore are finally back home.
After a lengthy nine-month journey in space, the astronauts safely returned to Earth on March 18. They are returning after a four-person NASA and SpaceX crew, consisting of Americans, Japanese, and Russians, landed at the ISS on March 16 to replace the leaving pair.
Together with Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov and fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague, Suni, 59, and Butch, 62, boarded a SpaceX Dragon capsule and splashed down off the coast of Florida after a 17-hour flight. After landing, the two were pulled from the ocean by a boat.
Nearly 300 days have passed since the NASA astronauts were scheduled to spend eight days in orbit aboard the Starliner spaceship before returning home. However, NASA chose to send the Boeing spacecraft back down without the crew due to a number of technical problems, including a helium leak that started shortly after their June launch.
In September, Crew-9, consisting of Nick and Alexsandr, joined the Starliner crew for their customary six-month tour of duty. The four have been working to demonstrate the new arrivals the lab and station during their stay in orbit. Prior to the arrival of Crew-10, they were one of the seven people on board the ISS. Once they leave, the new crew will remain on the station for their six-month rotation, too.
The two provided regular updates on their voyage while in space, including correcting President Donald Trump's claim that they had been virtually
abandoned in orbit.
Butch told CNN in February that that is, again, not what our human spaceflight program is about.That has been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck—and I get it, Butch said. We don't feel stranded, we don't feel stuck, we don't feel abandoned, he added.
After all, they are seasoned astronauts, as Suni underlined, so they are accustomed to living on the ISS.
Up here, we have fantastic crew members, food, and clothing, she continued. Naturally, our stay was a little longer than anticipated, but we are both prepared to live and work on the International Space Station, and I think we've made the most of it.”
In fact, despite their extended stay, Suni and Butch managed to maintain a positive attitude at the ISS by organizing holiday events such as Thanksgiving parties.
“We have a bunch of food that we’ve packed away that is Thanksgiving-ish,” she told NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt in November. Mashed potatoes, green beans, mushrooms, apple cobbler, smoked turkey, and some cranberries.
She went on, Really, people are worried about us. Don't worry about us.We're eating healthily, exercising, and feeling great. We also have a great time up here.
