BBC Science
After nine months in space, Nasa astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have finally arrived back on Earth.
Their SpaceX capsule made a fast and fiery re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere, before four parachutes opened to take them to a gentle splash down off the coast of Florida.
A pod of dolphins circled the craft.
After a recovery ship lifted it of the water, the astronauts beamed and waved as they were helped out of the hatch, along with fellow crew members astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
“The crew’s doing great,” Steve Stich, manager, Nasa’s Commercial Crew Program said at a news conference.
It brings to an end a mission that was supposed to last for just eight days.
It was dramatically extended after the spacecraft Butch and Suni travelled to the International Space Station suffered technical problems.
“It is awesome to have crew 9 home, just a beautiful landing,” said Joel Montalbano, deputy associate administrator, Nasa’s Space Operations Mission Directorate.
He thanked the astronauts for their resilience and flexibility and said SpaceX had been a “great partner”.
The journey home took 17 hours.
The astronauts were helped onto a stretcher, which is standard practice after spending so long in the weightless environment.
They’ll be checked over by a medical team, and then reunited with their families.
NASA“The big thing will be seeing friends and family and the people who they were expecting to spend Christmas with,” said Helen Sharman, Britain’s first astronaut.
“All of those family celebrations, the birthdays and the other events that they thought they were going to be part of – now, suddenly they can perhaps catch up on a bit of lost time.”
The saga of Butch and Suni began in June 2024.
They were taking part in the first crewed test flight of the Starliner spacecraft, developed by aerospace company Boeing.
But the capsule suffered several technical problems during its journey to the space station, and it was deemed too risky to take the astronauts home.
Starliner returned safely to Earth empty in early September, but it meant the pair needed a new ride for their return.
So Nasa opted for the next scheduled flight: a SpaceX capsule that arrived at the ISS in late September.
It flew with two astronauts instead of four, leaving two seats spare for Butch and Suni’s return.
The only catch was this had a planned six month mission, extending the astronauts stay until now.
The Nasa pair have embraced their longer-than-expected stay in space.
NASAThey’ve carried out an array of experiments on board the orbiting lab and conducted spacewalks, with Suni breaking the record for the woman who’s spent the most hours outside of the space station. And at Christmas, the team dressed in Santa hats and reindeer antlers – sending a festive message for a Christmas that they had originally planned to send at home.
And despite the astronauts being described as “stranded” they never really were.
Throughout their mission there have always been spacecraft attached to the space station to get them – and the rest of those onboard – home if there was an emergency.
Now the astronauts have arrived home, they will soon be taken to the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas,. where they will be checked over by medical experts.
Long duration missions in space take a toll on the body, astronauts lose bone density and suffer muscle loss. Blood circulation is also affected, and fluid shifts can also impact eyesight.
It can take a long time for the body to return to normal, so the pair will be given an extensive exercise regime as their bodies re-adapt to living with gravity.
British astronaut Tim Peake said it can take a while to re-adjust.
“Your body feels great, it feels like a holiday,” he told the BBC.
“Your heart is having an easy time, your muscles and bones are having an easy time. You’re floating around the space station in this wonderful zero gravity environment.
“But you must keep up the exercise regime. Because you’re staying fit in space, not for space itself, but for when you return back to the punishing gravity environment of Earth. Those first two or three days back on Earth can be really punishing.”
In interviews while onboard, Butch and Suni have said they were well prepared for their longer than expected stay – but there were things they were looking forward to when they got home.
Speaking to CBS last month, Suni Williams said “I’m looking forward to seeing my family, my dogs and jumping in the ocean. That will be really nice – to be back on Earth and feel Earth.”
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