Astronauts spray on Earth after spending 9 months unexpectedly in space
After a week’s trip to the International Space Station in Mongolfiera in a nine-month stay, two NASA astronauts have finally landed-o sagged, rather-terrah.
Tuesday, at 5:57 pm et, a capsule went off the coast of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle, bringing Suni Williams and Barry (Butch) Wilmore to the earth’s surface for the first time since they were launched in space last June.
The ocean waters were calm against a light blue sky when the Spacex crease capsule transported four crews-19 people landed with four white and red parachutes. At some point, dolphins could be seen swimming up to the capsule.
Wilmore, 62, and Williams, 59, returned with the colleague Astronaut of Nasa Nick Hague and Roscosmos Cosmonout Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard the Spacex Dragon Space Vehicle, which did not record the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday evening.
It could be heard Hague say that there were “Grens Ear to Ear” on board on an expedition to the control of the mission after landing.
Hague and Gorbunov had arrived at the ISS in the Dragon spaceship in September, with two empty seats for the return trip of Wilmore and Williams, but that trip could not be set in motion until a complete replacement crew arrived to cover their roles on the ISS.
After Splashdown, the capsule was raised on the recovery ship, where the hatch was opened and the astronauts were raised by the team members on the ship.
Astronauts are subjected to medical checks, a standard procedure after spending so much time in space. For Williams and Wilmore, the recovery time could last months while regaining strength in the limbs.
All four astronauts smiled and nodded while they were taken away, with the Hague first, followed by Gorbunov, Williams and then Wilmore.
Wilmore and Williams ended up spending 286 days in space – 278 days more than expected when they launched. They circled the land 4,576 times and traveled 195 million kilometers at the time of the splashdown.
With 62 hours on nine spatial spaces, Williams has set a record for most of the time spent in spatial for a career between the astronauts.
Astronauts also conducted 150 experiments during their time in space, including those to help improve stem cell technology, as well as test lighting systems to help maintain circadian rhythms for people in space and missions in remote places. They also took samples from the outside of the ship where they were to see which types of organisms can survive space and conducted plants growth experiments.
Speaking with journalists on Tuesday evening, Steve Stich, director of the NASA commercial crew program, said that the adaptability of Williams and Wilmore was a testimony of their resilience and a good indicator of how the crews manage when the unexpected occur.
“The crew is going great. They will spend some time on the recovery ship to check -out, making sure they are healthy and ready to go,” said Stich, observing that they would be able to see their families on a day or so.
Wilmore was missing most of the senior year of his minor daughter; His eldest daughter is in college. Williams had to settle for the internet calls from space to her husband, mother and other relatives.
“We were not worried about her because she was in a good mood,” said Falguni Pandya, who is married to Williams’ cousin. “She was definitely ready to go home.”
The astronauts of NASA Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore sprayed off the coast of Florida Tuesday after a prolonged nine -month stay aboard the International Space Station. A dolphin pod could have been seen swimming next to their capsule a few minutes after the successful sketch.
Left behind the flight problems of the test
Their odyssey began in June, when they were linked to what was supposed to be a trial flight of the Boeing Starliner capsule. It was the first crew flight of a Boeing space vehicle and they would have had to spend just over a week at the Orbit Laboratory before returning home on June 14th.
Although Starliner arrived at the space station safe on June 6, the last -minute malfunction of the engines almost derail his dock. This, in addition to a small loss of helium, has raised concerns about the fact that it may not be sure for Wilmore and Williams to return to the capsule.
In August, NASA announced that it had decided to report Boeing Starliner on Earth without its crew.
Wilmore and Williams orbit the Earth in orbit as members of the Expedition 71/72 crew of the ISS. Williams has also been the ISS commander since September.
The mission took an unexpected turn at the end of January when the president of the United States Donald Trump asked the founder of Spacex Elon Musk to accelerate the return of astronauts and has blamed the delay on the Biden administration.
The brand new SPACEX capsule of a replacement mint was not yet ready to fly, so Spacex played it with a used one, hurrying things for at least a few weeks.
Astronauts admitted In September That it was difficult to look at the space vehicle to go home without them.
“This is how it goes to this sector,” Williams said at that moment, adding that “you have to turn the page and look at the next opportunity”.
Both Williams and Wilmore started in the United States Navy and were selected respectively as astronauts from NASA in 1998 and 2000.
Long -awaited return
Returning home to Earth after spending months to live in space is always a bit of a ordeal for the body, according to Scott Parazynski, a former NASA astronaut and now CEO of Onward Air and Aerospace Company.
“He will hear me as if they were 100 years old,” he told the CBC News Network. “They will bring the weight of gravity and their spatial suits on the back for the first time (in months).”
Astronauts use the ISS training equipment to stay in shape and prevent part of the loss of bone calcium and muscle integrity, but there is still a great adjustment process to recover balance and strength, said Parazynski.
While a nine -month stay on the ISS is about three months more than the usual rotation, it is far from longer than anyone spent in space, so there are no special precautions for Williams and Wilmore.
“There is a large precedent for this,” said Parazynski. “An American astronaut, Frank Rubio, doubled his stay on board the ISS – actually holds the United States record, 371 (consecutive) days in space – when a soyuz capsule made a loss.”
Cosmonout Sergei Krikalev was on the Mir Space Station when the Soviet Union, who had sent him there, was dissolved in 1991, leaving him abandoned for 311 days in space, twice his original mission.
