Washington, USA:
According to NASA, a US astronaut who has been trapped on the International Space Station for more than nine months has been trapped for more than nine months.
Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams are brought home with another American astronaut and Russian astronauts on aboard the Dragoncraft of SpaceX crew who arrived at the ISS early Sunday.
The stuck duo had been in office in the ISS since June after Boeing's Starliner spaceship, and after they had propulsion problems on the maiden crew's voyage, they were deemed unfit to bring them back to Earth.
NASA said in a statement Sunday evening that it has advanced the expected ocean splashdown for astronauts off the Florida coast to 5:57pm (2157 GMT) on Tuesday. It was originally scheduled for immediate use from Wednesday.
“The updated return target allows members of the space station crew to continue to complete their takeover obligations and provide operational flexibility ahead of the whimsical weather conditions expected later in the week,” the space agency said.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos Cosnot Alexander Golbunov will also return to the Dragon Capsule, with a live journey starting Monday evening, when preparations for the hatch closes begin.
For Willmore and Williams, it marks the end of the ordeal where they are stuck for nine months, intended to have been a round-trip for several days.
Their long stay was significantly longer than the standard issue rotation for astronauts, which was around six months.
However, the 371-day US Space Record held by NASA astronaut Frank Rubio on the ISS in 2023, or the world record held by Russian astronaut Valeri Polikov, is far shorter than the world record of spending 437 consecutive days at the Mir Space Station.
Still, the unexpected nature of their long-term separation from their family – they weren't packed enough, so they had to receive additional clothing and personal care items – gained interest and sympathy.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published by Syndicate Feed.)
