Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore :
NASA’s stuck astronauts Sunita Williams, Barry Wilmore’s and two others have departed from the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on Tuesday, after being stranded there for nine months.
The astronauts have begun their 17-hour journey from space to earth and are scheduled to splash down in the Gulf of America at 3:30 am IST on Thursday.
Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore : NASA and SpaceX Prepare for Crew-9
NASA and SpaceX are preparing for the return of the Crew-9 mission from the International Space Station (ISS), with weather evaluations and splashdown conditions off the coast of Florida underway. “NASA will provide live coverage of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 return to Earth, beginning with Dragon spacecraft hatch closure preparations at 10:45 p.m. EDT Monday, March 17,” the agency announced. Favorable weather conditions have prompted mission managers to aim for an earlier return on Tuesday, March 18, while allowing ISS crew members time to complete handover duties.
Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore : Return to Earth After 9-Month ISS Mission
Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore : Dragon Prepares for Departure
As the return approaches, mission managers will keep a close watch on the weather, as Dragon’s undocking is contingent upon several factors, including spacecraft readiness, recovery team readiness, and prevailing sea states.
Meanwhile, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which is carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi from JAXA, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, successfully docked with the ISS, as announced by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Sunday.
Wilmore and Williams had initially intended for a one-week mission after arriving at the ISS in June of last year. Their return to Earth was complicated by issues with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which returned unmanned in September following the identification of “helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters” on June 6, as it approached the space station.
