NASA Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore Safely Returned to Earth

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have safely returned to Earth after spending over nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS) due to unexpected delays. Their journey back was aboard SpaceX’s Dragon Freedom capsule, which successfully splashed down off the Florida coast near Tallahassee at 5:57 PM ET on Tuesday (3:27 AM IST, Wednesday).

During their extended stay, Williams and Wilmore spent 286 days in space, completing over 4,500 orbits and covering more than 121 million statute miles.

Nicknamed ‘Butch and Suni,’ the duo was joined by astronauts Nick Hague and Aleksandr Grebyonkin, who arrived at the ISS in December as part of a NASA and SpaceX-coordinated rescue mission.

Following their 17-hour return trip, the astronauts emerged from their scorched capsule, waving and smiling at the cameras before being taken away in reclining stretchers for routine medical checks.

Williams and Wilmore originally traveled to the ISS in June last year for what was intended to be an eight-day mission. However, they were forced to remain in orbit after the Boeing Starliner capsule experienced issues with its propulsion system. As the first crew to pilot Boeing’s Starliner on a test flight, they had to wait until the faulty capsule was returned to Earth last September.