Dolphins Welcome Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore And Other Astronauts After Their Spacecraft Splashes Down Safely (Screengrab) | X/@NASA_Johnson/@NASA_Astronauts
Florida: NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Earth after nine months on Tuesday evening (local time). Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico, hours after departing the International Space Station (ISS). The two astronauts returned with NASA’s Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The astronauts were welcomed by Dolphins. They were seen swimming around the capsule carrying the astronauts.
The video of the incident is doing rounds on social media. The capsule was later retrieved by the recovery vessel. The capsule was successfully lifted by the recovery vessel out of the water.
Dolphins welcoming Astronauts:
Splashdown occurred off the coast of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle. Within an hour, the astronauts were out of their capsule. They were seen waving and smiling at the cameras.
Williams and Wilmore were expected to be at the ISS for just eight days. after launching on Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule on June 5. However, due to a technical glitch. They could not be brought back. The stronauts will now undergo 45-dat rehabilitation program in Houston.
Visuals Of Dragon Spacecraft’s Splashdown:
Their return was possible only after SpaceX and NASA’s Crew-10 Mission carrying four astronauts onboard Drag craft reached the ISS on Sunday. Wilmore and Williams ended up spending 286 days in space.
They circled Earth 4,576 times and traveled 121 million miles (195 million kilometers) by the time of splashdown.
“On behalf of SpaceX, welcome home,” radioed SpaceX Mission Control in California. With 62 hours over nine spacewalks, Williams set a record: the most time spent spacewalking over a career among female astronauts.
