Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore have returned to Earth after a nine-month keep on the Worldwide Area Station — a visit that lasted far longer than initially deliberate because of leaks and thruster issues on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they used to get there.
Williams and Wilmore splashed down within the Gulf of Mexico in a SpaceX Dragon capsule at 5:57 p.m. ET on Tuesday, after a 17-hour return journey from the ISS.
Their return marks the top of one of many stranger chapters in current spaceflight historical past, because of the issues that Boeing’s Starliner skilled and the way in which that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has politicized the astronauts’ return.
Williams and Wilmore initially launched to the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) in June 2024 as a part of a mission that was essential to Boeing’s try to compete towards SpaceX. The aviation behemoth gained a contract alongside SpaceX in 2014 to ship astronauts to the ISS for NASA with an eye fixed on ultimately carrying them even additional out into the photo voltaic system.
SpaceX carried out its first crewed flight with its Crew Dragon spacecraft in 2020 — throughout the early days of the covid pandemic. Boeing’s Starliner mission, in the meantime, was dragged down by value overruns and delays.
The flight in June 2024 was supposed to assist Boeing look previous all that. The aim was to ship Williams and Wilmore to the ISS after which convey them again dwelling after a brief keep. However Starliner skilled issues earlier than they even docked with the ISS. As soon as they lastly obtained aboard, NASA and Boeing spent a number of weeks performing assessments earlier than deciding to convey Starliner again with out the astronauts.
NASA shortly began working with SpaceX on a plan to convey Willams and Wilmore again. After some backwards and forwards, they determined to attend till early 2025 to convey the duo dwelling in order that the ISS wouldn’t be short-staffed.
In current months, although, Musk has claimed (with out offering any proof) that he provided to convey the astronauts dwelling earlier — and that former President Joe Biden declined the provide as a result of it will assist his political rival Donald Trump.
NASA’s former administrator and deputy administrator beneath Biden have both said the area company was not conscious of any provide. CNN reported on Tuesday that senior White Home officers additionally declare they weren’t conscious of any provide.