Splashdown: NASA astronauts finally back on Earth after nine months stuck in space
The pair expected to be away for just a week or so after launching on Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule on June 5. So many problems cropped up on the way to the space station that NASA eventually sent Starliner back empty and transferred the test pilots to SpaceX, pushing their homecoming into February. SpaceX capsule issues added another month’s delay.
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were sanguine about their unexpectedly lengthy stay in space.Credit: nna\riwood
Sunday’s arrival of their relief crew meant Wilmore and Williams could finally leave. NASA cut them loose a little early, given the unsettled weather forecast later this week. They checked out with Hague and Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov, who arrived in their own SpaceX capsule last spring with two empty seats reserved for the Starliner duo.
“We’ll miss you, but have a great journey home,” NASA’s Anne McClain called out from the space station as the capsule pulled away 400 kilometres above the Pacific.
Their plight captured the world’s attention, giving new meaning to the phrase “stuck at work”. While other astronauts had logged longer spaceflights over the decades, none had to deal with so much uncertainty or see the length of their mission expand by so much.
Wilmore and Williams quickly transitioned from guests to full-fledged station crew members, conducting experiments, fixing equipment and even spacewalking together. With 62 hours over nine spacewalks, Williams set a record: the most time spent spacewalking over a career among female astronauts.
Both had lived aboard the orbiting lab before and had brushed up on their station training before rocketing away. Williams became the station’s commander three months into their stay and held the post until earlier this month.
Their mission took an unexpected twist in late January when President Donald Trump asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to accelerate the astronauts’ return, blaming the delay on the Biden administration. The replacement crew’s new SpaceX capsule still wasn’t ready to fly, so SpaceX subbed it with a used one, hurrying things along by at least a few weeks.
Even in the middle of the political storm, Wilmore and Williams continued to maintain an even keel at public appearances from orbit, casting no blame and insisting they supported NASA’s decisions from the start.
NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing after the Space Shuttle program ended in order to have two competing US companies transporting astronauts to and from the space station.
A NASA video showed the SpaceX capsule carrying Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore undocking from the International Space Station.Credit: nna\josh.hohne
The space station is due to be decommissioned in 2030 and will be abandoned to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. By then, it will have been in use for more than three decades; the plan is to replace it with privately run stations so that NASA can focus on moon and Mars expeditions.
Both retired Navy captains, Wilmore and Williams stressed they didn’t mind spending more time in space – a prolonged deployment reminiscent of their military days. But they acknowledged it was tough on their families.
Wilmore, 62, missed most of his younger daughter’s senior year of high school; his older daughter is in college. Williams, 59, had to settle for internet calls from space to her mother.
