The NASA Sunita astronauts “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore have been on the international space station for more than eight months, even if they were initially expecting to stay for about eight days. It is finally time to go home and their replacements have arrived.
A rescue crew accosted at the ISS just after midnight HE on Sunday after two days of delays that have dechered, the first due to a hydraulic system problem with a ground support pliers for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the second due to the weather. But Friday, at 7:03 pm HE, Crew-10, composed of astronauts from NASA Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, the astronaut of the Japanese aerospace agency, the astronaut Takuya Onishi and the Roscosmos Cosmonaut Kirill Peskov was launched in their trip to the ISS. And Sunday, the Dragon Spacex spacecraft moored at the orbit complex At 12:04 p.m., while the station was around 260 miles above the Atlantic Ocean.
Find out more: NASA crew astronauts launch at the ISS on SpaceX Rocket
Now there will be a two -day transfer period, then Williams, Wilmore, the Nasa astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will be on the way back to earth. They could be backwards back on March 19.
March 7, Williams Rendered the order of the ISS to Roscosmos Cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin while she was preparing to go home.
‘We are not stuck’
Williams told PBS Newshour Recently, they do not feel abandoned by NASA.
“Obviously, there are a lot of discussions on this subject, so maybe people could conceive that it is as we are, but we are not stuck,” she said. “We are part of a more important process, right?”
Asked about the practical aspects of suddenly in space much longer than expected, without additional supplies, Wilmore said that it was not a problem.
“We launched with less clothes, if you want, and it was intentional,” he said. “We mentioned additional equipment that needed – the space station needed. We brought it with us. So we removed some of our clothes. We were only going to be around a week ago.
“But we made ourselves. It was not serious, honestly. The program of the space station provides for multiple contingencies. We store food to last four months beyond what is expected, at least. Some – most of the time, it is longer than that, food and other amenities, wet wipers, everything you need here.”
Wilmore told PBS that he could talk to his family since space, noting that he is not only talking about with his two daughters but also to the boyfriend of his youngest girl.
“As a girl’s father, these are my responsibilities,” he said.
Find out more: The first interactive interactive flow of NASA shows how the astronauts love coffee
Save the walk in space
Because their stay was extended, Williams set a record. She went to a 5 hour and 26 -minute space walk with Wilmore and, with this walk, passed the record set by a woman for the time spent on the space balls. According to Space.comWilliams now has 62 hours, 6 minutes of extension in space, exceeding the old astronaut Peggy Whitson, who had 60 hours, 21 minutes.
On this last space march, the two worked to finally remove a defective radio-communization unit, one that astronauts on two previous space balls could not withdraw.
Williams has previously associated himself with astronaut Nick Hague for a spacewalk on January 16. On this space march, Williams and The Hague replaced a rate gyroscope assembly that helps maintain the orbital outpost orientation, NASA said. Astronauts have also installed fixes to cover the damaged areas of light filters on the X -ray -composition -composition telescope of neutron composition, replaced a reflector device on one of the international mooring adapters and verified access zones and connectors tools that astronauts will use for the maintenance of the future alpha spectrometer.
The NASA Suni Williams astronaut is seen outside the international space station on January 16, 2025, Spacewalk.
Who are astronauts?
Wilmore, 61, and Williams, 58, are veteran astronauts, naval officers and former test pilots. Williams has been a NASA astronaut since 1998 and Wilmore since 2000. The two have a lot of experience in space.
Williams is the former record holder for the most spatial time by a woman (seven) and the most spatial time by a woman (50 hours, 40 minutes), and in 2007, she ran the first marathon by anyone in space.
In 2009, Wilmore piloted the Atlantis space shuttle during its mission to the ISS, and in 2014, it was part of the ISS crew that used a 3D printer to make a tool – a ratchet key – in space, the first time humans made something out of the world.
What was their original mission in space?
Wilmore, as commander, and Williams, as a pilot, went to the ISS on a 15 -foot, Boeing, called Starliner capsule. They were launched on June 5 and moored with the ISS on June 6. NASA hopes that Starliner will give the organization a new way of bringing the crews to and from the ISS, and the fact that it is made by Boeing is another sign that NASA begins to rely on the private sector for its options for human space, The New York Times reported.
The ISS mission of Wilmore and Williams was supposed to last only eight days, during which they would test the aspects of Starliner and see how it works with a human crew in space. But due to complications with Starliner, the two astronauts are still up there.
Wilmore and Williams answered the media questions in March of last year.
How did they have been stuck in space in the first place?
The Starliner was delayed in May due to a problem with a valve in the rocket. Then the engineers had to repair a helium leak. This is bad news for Boeing. He competes with SpaceX, who has been transporting astronauts to the ISS since 2020, making more than 20 successful trips to the space station.
On June 5, Starliner finally launched at the top of an Atlas V rocket, but some problems came with the launch. NASA has announced that Three helium leaks were identified, one of which was known before the flight, and two new ones. In addition to leaks, the crew had to help off the defaulting control propellers, although the profession was able to agree with the ISS.
SpaceX also had failures. A Falcon 9 rocket exploded on the launch in 2016. In July of this year, a Falcon 9 rocket experienced a liquid oxygen leak and deployed its satellites in bad orbit, the New York Times reported. In addition, a Falcon 9 rocket at the end of August lost a booster on the first floor when it overthrew in the Atlantic Ocean and caught fire.
But that said, SpaceX has more than 300 successful Falcon 9 flights to his credit.
Stuck in space: a chronology
- May: The launch of Starliner is delayed due to a problem with a valve in the rocket, then a helium leak.
- June 5: Starliner is launched with Williams and Wilmore on board.
- June 6: Starliner grants the ISS despite the treatment of three helium leaks and failed control propellants.
- September 6: Starliner leaves the ISS and the lands to the New Mexico, leaving Williams and Wilmore behind.
- September 28: SpaceX Crew-9 Mission is launched with The Hague and Gorbunov on a dragon spacecraft.
- September 29: Docks Dragon Spacex with ISS.
- December 17: NASA announces that the launch of four crew members at the ISS will be delayed from February to the end of March.
- March 12: CREW-10, Astronauts of NASA, Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, were delayed by a day, then the next day.
- March 14: CREW-10 launched during their 28-hour trip to the ISS.
- March 16: The crew-10 arrived just after midnight Sunday. Now there will be a two -day transfer period.
- March 19: SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft should leave the ISS and return to Earth with Williams, Wilmore, Hague and Gorbunov.
