Two NASA astronauts stuck onboard the International Space Station since June 2024 finally arrived back on Earth this morning, more than nine months after the failure of Boeing’s pioneering Starliner capsule scuppered their originally scheduled week-long mission.
A SpaceX Dragon capsule containing four astronauts, including Starliner’s test pilots Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore, splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico after a 17-hour descent.
The spacecraft slowed from 17,000mph (27,359 km/h) as it entered Earth’s atmosphere and emerged into a clear blue Florida sky before coasting under four parachutes to a gentle splashdown on what a Nasa commentator said was a “calm, glasslike ocean”.
“And splashdown. Crew 9 back on Earth. Nick, Aleksandr, Butch and Suni, on behalf of SpaceX, welcome home,” a voice from mission control said.
“What a ride. I see a capsule full of grins, ear to ear,” Nicholas Hague, the third American onboard, replied.
[Source: The Guardian]
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