CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Diya TV) — Following a prolonged mission on the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronauts Sunita “Suni” Williams, Barry “Butch” Wilmore, and Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov returned to Earth today. The four departed the ISS early Tuesday on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom, with a splashdown off the Florida coast early Tuesday evening.
The mission, initially planned to be shorter, was prolonged by technical problems in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Williams, who is Indian American, and Wilmore reached the ISS in June 2024 for an originally planned eight-day mission on the Starliner. Complications such as helium leaks in the propulsion system forced a longer stay. NASA then scheduled their return through SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.
Throughout their extended stay, the astronauts supported more than 150 experiments, spending over 900 hours on scientific work. Most notably, they performed spacewalks to swab the outside of the station for microorganisms, determining the viability of such organisms in the extreme conditions of space. They also successfully removed a radio frequency group unit, a major achievement for NASA.
Upon landing, the recovery teams helped the crew members out of the spacecraft. They will be subjected to a number of medical checks for their health after this long-duration mission. The astronauts will meet their families soon after that and then begin re-adapting themselves to Earth’s gravity.
