Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will soon breathe in Earth’s air for the first time in nine months
The NASA astronauts who have been “stuck” in outer space for nine months have sent a message to Elon Musk and Donald Trump as their prolonged stay comes to an end.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will return to Earth aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday.
Nasa had launched the Crew-10 mission on Friday using a Falcon 9 rocket to transport the replacement crew to the ISS. This allowed Williams and her team to use the returning Crew Dragon for their journey back to Earth.
Their stay, which was initially meant to last just over a week but ran into the best part of a year, came to a close early on Tuesday ET when Williams and Wilmore departed in a SpaceX capsule, along with two other astronauts.
The capsule aimed for a splashdown off the Florida coast by early evening, on Wednesday, March 19, but the exact time and location could change depending on weather conditions.
Once in the water, a SpaceX recovery team will retrieve the spacecraft, and Williams and Wilmore will step out, breathing Earth’s air for the first time in nine months.
In a video uploaded to X, previously Twitter, by Elon Musk, Williams is seen thanking the SpaceX CEO and US President Donald Trump before issuing a jokey warning to the pair, who are close to the space community.
“We are coming back before long, so don’t make those plans without me,” Williams says. “We’ll be back before too long.”
Wilmore goes on: “We all have the highest regard for Mr Musk and quite obviously respect and admiration for our President of the United States, Donald Trump. We thank them, we thank all that they do for us, human spaceflight for our country, and we’re grateful for the positions they hold.”President Trump took the opportunity to essentially blame former President Joe Biden for the explorers’ long stint in the stars, calling the Democrat, who left office in January, “the worst president we ever had”.
“We love you and we’re coming up to get you, and you shouldn’t have been up there so long,” Trump wrote to the astronauts. “The worst president we ever had has permitted that to be done to you. I have approved Elon Musk to go and bring them home, and he is ready to do it.”
The spat comes after Musk criticised NASA’s plans to bring Williams and Wilmore home only once another crew was poised to board the ISS to ensure a steady stream of staff, and to avoid a separate, costly return mission.
Musk and Trump saw this as the Biden administration abandoning Williams and Wilmore, with the tech billionaire claiming SpaceX’s offer to bring the astronauts home months ago was rejected for “political reasons”.
NASA deny any knowledge of this offer. The astronauts have also repeatedly refuted claims they were “abandoned,” “stuck” or “stranded” in outer space. Their initial journey home was postponed by NASA due to safety concerns.
Elsewhere, a list of major health risks facing the professionals even when they land back on solid ground has been unveiled. And it turns out the dangers of orbiting in space affect almost every part of the human anatomy.
