After nine months stuck in space, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore splashed down in the Gulf of America shortly before 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
In a mission that was supposed to last eight days, Williams and Wilmore were stranded at the International Space Station when their Boeing Starliner suffered thruster problems. NASA opted to bring them home via Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Williams and Wilmore came home via SpaceX Dragon, parachuting down off the coast of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle at 5:57 p.m. ET to complete their 17-hour trek home.
After being retrieved and initial safety checks, Williams and Wilmore will be flown to Houston to begin a 45-day rehabilitation program. Challenges such as muscle and bone loss, fluid shifts that can lead to kidney stones and vision issues, and the readjustment of balance upon returning to a gravity environment are well understood and effectively managed.
The Trump administration blamed the Biden administration for marooning Williams and Wilmore, asserting that former President Joe Biden didn't want Musk to get the glory for rescuing the pair.
Wilmore and Williams ended up spending 286 days in space — 278 days longer than anticipated when they launched. They circled Earth 4,576 times and traveled 121 million miles by the time of splashdown.
Joining them on SpaceX Dragon were NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Information from The Associated Press, AFP were used in this report.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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