Kumar Bahukhandi
How will Sunita Williams decide her journey?
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore were sent to the International Space Station (ISS) for a few weeks. But due to a malfunction in their spacecraft, Boeing Starliner, they were stranded there for nine months. But now they are going to return home.
Four astronauts including American space agency NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore left the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday to return to Earth. The whole world is watching this journey. The astronauts are returning from space after about 9 months and are returning home aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore were sent to the International Space Station (ISS) for a few weeks. But due to a malfunction in their spacecraft, the Boeing Starliner, they were stuck there for nine months. Prime Look has shown through pictures the landing process of the SpaceX Dragon capsule in the sea off the coast of Florida on Wednesday morning after a 17-hour journey.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore’s journey back home will take seven stages.
This story began in June. As the Starliner approached the space station, some of its thrusters stopped working for a while. But it was still able to dock. After a few months of problems, space agency NASA officials decided to keep it safe. They brought the Starliner back to Earth in September without astronauts.
But that meant Williams and Wilmore needed another ride back home. Think of it as the space version of rebooking passengers after a flight is canceled. NASA has seven astronauts on the space station. It replaces four astronauts every six months. Russia sends three astronauts at a time. With Williams and Wilmore on board, NASA was concerned about having two more astronauts.
Boeing’s Starliner capsule with Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore docked with the International Space Station on June 6, 2024. Along with the astronauts, their colleagues at the ISS, Nick Hague of NASA and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov of Roscosmos, two astronauts each from Russia, Japan and the US will also assist them.
After a two-day handover, the old crew began the journey back to Earth on Tuesday and will land on the Florida coast on Wednesday morning (Indian time). The SpaceX Dragon will cross several phases to move away from the space station. It will perform several orbit exercises to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and make the final splashdown.
The spacecraft will carry NASA Crew-9 astronauts Nick Hague, Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov. Hague and Gorbunov flew to the space station on Dragon when a Falcon 9 launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on September 28, 2024.
