After spending nine long months in space, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are finally heading home.
Gatekeepers News reports that they departed the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on Tuesday, March 18, alongside teammates Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Their return journey, part of the Crew-9 mission, marks the end of an unexpectedly extended stay in orbit.
Williams and Wilmore’s original mission was supposed to last only eight days, but a malfunctioning Boeing Starliner spacecraft forced them to stay longer. Despite the challenges, the duo has characterised their extra time in space as a bonus, thanks to their extensive prior spaceflight experience.
“We’re prepared and committed, despite what you’ve been hearing,” Wilmore said in a recent news conference, seeking to quash narratives that they were “abandoned” or “stranded” in space.
Their return journey is expected to be a complex one, with the Crew Dragon capsule firing its engines to begin reentry around 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday. The capsule will then deploy two sets of parachutes to slow its descent before splashing down off the coast of Florida.
