Washington: Two NASA astronauts returned to earth after an unexpected stay of nine months in space, landing safely off the coast of Florida in a SpaceX capsule after a mission which was to last only a few days but turned into a prolonged test due to technical problems.
A SpaceX crew spatial vessel carrying Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams – American colleague Nick Hague and Russian Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov – failed through the atmosphere before deploying parachutes for a soft splash off the Florida coast at 5:57 p.m. (2157 GMT).
The ground teams broke out in applause while the gum space -shaped spacecraft, named Freedom, charred with burning temperatures of 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (2000 degrees Celsius) during the start of the school year, regularly swinging on the waves under a clear and sunny sky.
Quick boats rushed to the capsule for initial security checks, which will soon be followed by a recovery ship that would recover the crew before they are transported to Houston to start a 45 -day rehabilitation program.
“What a walk – I see a capsule full of friends here,” said Hague.
The quartet left the international space station about 5 p.m. earlier after exchanging farewells and final hugs with the remaining crew members.
Wilmore and Williams, both former pilots and veterans of two previous space missions, flew to the Orbital laboratory in June of last year on what was to be a round trip of several days to test the Boeing Starliner during its first crew flight.
But the spacecraft has developed propulsion problems and was deemed unfit to turn them back, in empty place.
They were then reassigned to the NASA Spacex Crew 9 mission, which arrived at the ISS last September with a reduced crew – rather than the usual four – to welcome the couple, who had become widely called “blocked” astronauts.
Early Sunday, a rescue team called Crew-10 accosted with the station, opening the way to the start of the crew-9 team.
“Incredible resilience”
The stay of 286 days of Wilmore and Williams goes beyond the usual rotation of the six -month ISS, but only ranks sixth among American records for a stake period.
Frank Rubio is first place at 371 days in 2023, while the world record remains with the Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, which spent 437 consecutive days on board the MIR station.
This makes it “normality for the course” in terms of health risks, according to Rihana Bokhari of the Center for Space Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine.
Challenges such as muscular and bone loss, fluid displacements that can cause kidney stones and vision problems, and the readjustment of balance when returning to a severity environment are well understood and managed effectively.
“People like Suni Williams are in fact known for their interest in the exercise, and I therefore believe that it does exercises beyond what is even its normal prescription,” Bokhari told AFP.
However, the unexpected nature of their prolonged stay – came from their families and initially without enough packaged supplies – has aroused public interest and sympathy.
“If you discovered that you went to work today and that you were going to be stuck in your office for the next nine months, you may have a panic attack,” Joseph Keebler, psychologist at Embry-Rriddle Aeronautical University told AFP.
“These individuals have shown incredible resilience.”
Trump weighs
Their unexpected passage has also become a political lightning rod, former president Donald Trump and his close adviser, Elon Musk – who leads SpaceX – suggesting that President Joe Biden abandoned astronauts and refused a previous rescue plan.
Such accusations caused an uproar in the space community, especially since Musk offered no detail and that the NASA plan for the return of astronauts has been largely unchanged since the reallocation of their crew-9.
Trump also drew attention to his bizarre remarks, referring to Williams, a former navy captain who holds the American record for the second longest cumulative moment in space, like “the woman with wild hair” and speculating on the personal dynamics between the two.
“They were left up there-I hope they love each other, maybe they love each other, I don’t know,” he said during a recent White House press conference.
