Nasa reveals astronauts’ return date, Sunita Williams says ‘Be back before long’

NASA has verified that astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) for more than nine months because of technical problems with their Starliner spacecraft, will come back to Earth early Wednesday morning.

The two astronauts, initially scheduled for a 10-day mission, were unable to come back after their Boeing Starliner capsule encountered propulsion issues. Their return is now scheduled to occur on the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, which successfully docked with the ISS on Sunday. They will be accompanied by NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

NASA announced that the ocean splashdown is anticipated to take place off the Florida coast around 5:57 pm ET on Tuesday (2157 GMT and 3:27 am IST on March 19). The return was originally planned for Wednesday but was rescheduled to guarantee improved weather conditions for the landing.

The arrival of the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule is a regular crew rotation mission for Nasa, but this flight gained extra importance as it served as the anticipated method forbringing Williams and Wilmore back to Earth.

Wilmore expressed gratitude to Musk and Trump, remarking, “We all hold great respect for Mr. Musk and naturally have respect and admiration for the President of the United States, Donald Trump.” We value them; we value everything they do for us, for human spaceflight in our country, and we are grateful for their roles.

Trump had earlier remarked on their extended time in space, attributing their absence to the Biden administration for neglecting them. “We love you, and we’re coming up to get you. You shouldn’t have been up there for so long. The most incompetent president in our history allowed this to happen to you, but this president won’t let that happen. We’re going to get you out,” he had said in an Oval Office address.

He additionally commented specifically on Williams, mentioning her hair while in zero gravity. “And I see the woman with the wild hair-a good, solid head of hair she’s got. There’s no kidding, no games with her hair. But, you know, there’s a danger up there, too. They could face failures, which would be very bad. We’ve got to get them out. So, I authorised Elon a week ago,” Trump added.