Two NASA astronauts finally returned home after nine months of stay during a week-long trip to the International Space Station.
On Tuesday's plan, if all planned, the capsules would splash off the Florida coast shortly before 6 p.m. ET, which will return Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to Earth for the first time since they launched into space in June last year.
NASA's live report on the return trip began at 4:45 pm ET.
The capsule is scheduled to start its deorbital combustion at 5:11 pm (which is when its propeller re-enters the Earth's atmosphere) and is expected to be 40 minutes later in Splashdown.
The so-called “stranded” astronaut’s dilemma (a term widely used in media reports, although NASA and the two astronauts did not play their extended space visits in this way, it attracted a few months of audiences on Earth as their return plans continued to add delays and complexity.
Wilmore, 62, and Williams, 59, will return to Earth with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos astronaut Aleksandr Gorbunov in Spacex's Dragon Spacecraft, which were canceled on Monday night at the International Space Station (ISS).
The Hague and Gorbunov arrived at the ISS of the Dragon Spacecraft in September, with two empty seats for the return trips of Wilmore and Williams, but the trip didn't take action until a full backup crew arrived to fill the role of the ISS.
Last week, a new crew of four astronauts arrived in the regular rotation of ISS crew and will spend the next six months at the space station.
Questions left after testing
Astronauts' space odyssey began last June when they were caught in a test flight designed to be Boeing's Starliner capsule. This is the first crew of Boeing spacecraft to fly, and they should spend more than a week in their orbital labs back home on June 14.
But despite Starliner safely reaching the space station on June 6, the last-minute failure of the thruster was almost derailed. Aside from the tiny helium leak, this raises concerns that Wilmore and Williams may not be safe to return it.
In August, NASA announced that it had decided to turn Boeing’s Starliner (although it can be manually turned when needed), but it is completely autonomous without its crew.
Since then, Wilmore and Williams have been spinning on Earth as the crew of ISS's 71/72 Expedition are fully merged to engage in spacewalks, research and maintenance of space stations, and they wait to hear when they can go home. Williams has also served as commander of the Orbital Laboratory since September.
NASA said astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams may not be able to return from space until after many problems were found on the Boeing Superstar capsule in 2025. Andrew Chang explains why it’s getting them home is getting more and more complicated.
They admit September Without them, it would be hard to watch the spacecraft return home.
“That’s what this business has grown,” Williams said at the time, adding, “You have to turn the page and look at the next opportunity.”
The Starliner, brought back without a test pilot, was a major setback for Boeing, which has always wanted to join SpaceX as one of NASA's designated taxi services to ISS. Engineers are still investigating the thruster decomposition.
Williams and Wilmore both started in the U.S. Navy and were selected as astronauts by NASA in 1998 and 2000. When they boarded Starliner last June, they both became familiar with the complexity of space, having previously performed two space missions.
With the latest mission officially ending on Tuesday, Wilmore will total 404 days in his three space flights, while Williams will reach 608 cumulative days throughout her space, the second largest for any American astronaut after Peggy Whitson's 675 days. Russian astronaut Oleg Kononenko holds a world record and has more than 1,100 days in space.
The long-awaited reward
It's always a bit of a hard time living on Earth in space, according to Scott Parazynski, former NASA Aseronaut and current CEO of Onward Air and Aerospace Company.
“It feels like they're 100 years old,” he told CBC News Network. “They'll take on the weight of gravity for the first time and the space suit on their backs. [in months]. ”
Parazynski said astronauts use fitness equipment on the ISS to maintain shape and prevent certain losses in bone calcium and muscle integrity, but there is still a big adjustment process to restore balance and strength.
But while staying on the ISS for nine months longer than the usual rotation, it is far from the longest spent in space for anyone, so Williams and Wilmore don’t need special precautions.
“There are enough precedents,” Parazynski said. “American astronaut Frank Rubio doubled his stay – actually now has the U.S. record, 371 [consecutive] Days in Space – When soy milk capsules burst out and leak. ”
Astronaut Sergei Krikalev, who was disbanded in 1991, left him in space for 311 days, twice as much as his initial mission.
