STRANDED astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams have finally splashed back on Earth – after being stuck in space for a gruelling nine months.
The pair returned to their home planet in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft alongside two rescue mission astronauts on Tuesday night when the capsule landed off the Florida coast.
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The capsule, named freedom, dramatically splashed down in the sea near Florida and Tallahassee, ending an unexpectedly long mission which started in June 2024.
As it landed, the astronauts were greeted from the control centre: “Nick, Alec, Butch, Suni – on behalf of SpaceX, welcome home.”
The centre added: “I see a capsule full of grins, ear to ear.”
As the capsule landed, it dramatically slowed down from more than 17,000mph to completely stationary in just minutes.
The astronauts were not controlling or steering the capsule, as it was flying autonomously and only being monitored by the crew.
After the capsule landed, recovery teams arrived in “fast boats” to complete safety checks and retrieve the parachutes.
The SpaceX recovery vessel will make its way to the craft, pick it up and open the spaceship to allow the crew out for their first breath of fresh air.
The two accompanying rescue members, American Nick Hague and Russian Aleksandr Gorbunov, had been living at the International Space Station with them since last September.
Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Sunni” Williams had initially been sent on a days-long mission to test out Boeing’s Starliner on its first crewed flight.
But after the spaceship developed propulsion problems, they stayed in space the ISS whilst their craft flew back empty.
Wilmore and Williams’ 286-day stay exceeds the usual six-month ISS rotation but ranks only sixth among US records for single-mission duration.
Frank Rubio holds the top spot at 371 days in 2023, while the world record remains with Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent a whopping 437 consecutive days aboard the Mir station.
NASA has rejected the wording “stranded”, emphasizing that the pair could have been evacuated in an emergency if necessary.
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