NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stuck in the International Space Station (ISS) for 9 long months. They are finally returning to Earth.
NASA and billionaire Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX sent a mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, last Friday to bring them back. This mission of NASA and SpaceX has been named ‘Crew-10’. Four new astronauts have been sent on this mission. They have already reached the ISS.
According to NASA, Sunita and Butch have been stuck in the ISS since June last year. They went there on an eight-day space mission. But they were stuck there due to a defect in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
Sunita and Butch are very eager to return home after a long time. They spoke about this at a press conference. They participated in the press conference from the International Space Station.
Sunita was asked at the press conference what she would miss most about space. Her immediate response was, “Everything.”
“This was Butch and I’s third trip to the ISS,” Sunita said. “We helped put the pieces together. We watched it change from here. Living here has given us a unique perspective—not just the view out the window, but also how to solve problems. I don’t want to lose those inspirations and perspectives when I leave. So, I’ll keep them in my memories.”
Sunita didn’t know when she would be able to return home from space. That was the hardest part, she said. “We’re here. We have a mission. We do what we have to do every day. The hardest part is not knowing when we’ll be back. Those uncertainties are the hardest.”
‘Crew-10’ Mission
Four astronauts have been sent to the ISS in the ‘Crew-10’ mission. A spacecraft left the Kennedy Space Center at 7:03 pm local time on Friday. The mission includes NASA astronauts Anne McClain, Nicole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian space agency Roscosmos astronaut Kirill Peskov.
The SpaceX ‘Dragon’ spacecraft arrived at the International Station at 12:04 am on Saturday, a day after leaving Earth on Friday. Then the astronauts from the United States, Japan and Russia entered the ISS. They will stay there for a few days to learn various aspects of the ISS from Sunita and Butch.
Sunita and Butch will then enter the SpaceX spacecraft capsule. They will be accompanied by two other astronauts who are on the ISS. However, due to space weather, the capsule will not be able to leave the ISS before next Wednesday. If all goes well, they will launch from space to the Florida coast that same day.
Source: The Economic Times