The wait is over, and two astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, have just landed safely back on Earth after spending nine months aboard the International Space Station. Their return to our planet was a welcome sight, as they splashed down off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, at around 11 PM Spanish time, with the entire process unfolding as planned. They weren’t alone in their journey back; they were accompanied by Crew-9 members Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who had been on the station for about six months after arriving on another Dragon spacecraft, the Freedom, on September 29.
Once they touched down in the water, as reported by NASA’s X account, the teams will tow the spacecraft to a ship where they will finally open the hatch to let the astronauts out of the capsule. What was initially supposed to be an eight-day journey turned into a 285-day mission filled with uncertainties and changes in the script. The astronauts had to spend more time in space than anticipated, missing out on precious time with their families, including the holidays, as seen in some viral social media videos.
In the end, to bring their adventure to a close, SpaceX sent a Dragon spacecraft to retrieve them and replace the Boeing spacecraft that had taken them to the station. The journey of Williams and Wilmore was marked by setbacks from the very beginning. The launch of the Starliner was delayed twice, and although their mission was supposed to last just over a week, the spacecraft experienced repeated malfunctions. As the astronauts approached their first month in space, Steve Stich, the program manager for NASA’s commercial crew team, acknowledged that “we believe there’s something causing the thrusters to fail, and we don’t know exactly why.”
Among the issues with the spacecraft’s thrusters and helium leaks, Boeing, the owner of the capsule, decided to have the Starliner return to Earth without the astronauts on board. David Vicente, an astronomy communicator, explained on Zapeando last year that the company wanted to ensure the spacecraft had no defects or potential for error. Vicente noted that while such malfunctions might not be critical in a car, in space, “it’s a matter of life and death.” According to Vicente, Boeing conducted ground tests with identical capsules to confirm that the astronauts’ return could be done with total safety.
The Beginning of the Odyssey
The problems with Wilmore and Williams’ mission started before liftoff. The Starliner launch was postponed twice, and despite the initial plan for a brief mission, the spacecraft continued to experience failures. As the astronaut’s time in space extended, the need for a safe return became paramount, leading to the eventual deployment of a SpaceX Dragon to bring them home.