[Image: FMT]
The US astronauts stranded on the International Space Station finally returned to Earth Tuesday evening – months after their days-long jaunt in orbit turned into a headline-grabbing space odyssey.
Butch Wilmore, 62, and 59-year-old Suni Williams splashed down off the coast of Florida aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, after a nine-month stint in space that was supposed to last just eight days when it launched in June 2024.
The astronauts were undocked from the orbiting laboratory before starting their re-entry, which can be one of the most dangerous moments of space travel, finally hitting the Gulf Coast waters at 5:57 PM.
“Butch, Suni, on behalf of SpaceX, welcome home,” a mission-control dispatcher radioed the crew moments after the capsule Dragon Freedom splashed down.
Hague and Gorbunov have been aboard the space station since September, while Williams and Wilmore’s stay was significantly extended after a mishap with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft last year.
The duo, along with American astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov – were pulled from the capsule onboard a recovery vessel, and each was filmed beaming, waving and pumping their fists as they were helped to their feet and whisked away on wheelchairs.
To make the homecoming even sweeter, a pod of dolphins surrounded the capsule as it bobbed around in the ocean.
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Despite many labelling the duo as “stranded,” Williams and Wilmore have pushed back against that narrative, with both astronauts saying that they never felt trapped and were fully aware that test flights could encounter problems.
“That’s been the rhetoric. That’s been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck — and I get it. We both get it,” Wilmore previously said on CNN.
“But that is, again, not what our human spaceflight program is about. We don’t feel abandoned, we don’t feel stuck, we don’t feel stranded.”
Both astronauts are in for a few weeks of physio following their time in space, but breathing fresh air and feeling the ground under their feet will surely make it all worthwhile.
[Source: NYpost & Independent]
