NASA astronauts who returned to Earth after spending nine months in space now face a hellish journey to readjust to life with gravity.
Barry Wilmore and Suni Williams returned home in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft alongside two rescue mission astronauts last night when the capsule landed off the Florida coast.
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The capsule, named Freedom, dramatically splashed down in the sea near Tallahassee, Florida – as dolphins majestically swam around the floating spacecraft.
It ended an unexpectedly long mission which started in June 2024 and lasted 286 days.
But they now face a long journey to recover from what they describe as “chicken legs and baby feet”.
Experts say both Williams and Wilmore will be unable to walk on their own for a long time because of living in low gravity for nine months.
Their bodies may have also changed significantly due to the out-of-the-world living conditions.
Astronauts who spend even a month in space can start losing bone density and their muscles begin to waste away.
They can lose basic motor control and feel symptoms like nausea and motion sickness.
A lack of gravity also affects the human body’s ability to run the immune and cardiovascular systems.
As human bodies are mostly liquid, the bodily fluids often tend to shift downwards due to gravity.
But in space – where there is zero gravity – these fluids move up the body.
Astronauts often describe this feeling as “chicken legs” and “baby feet”.
The crew will now begin their rehabilitation program, which could last up to 45 days.
It is understood the first phase will focus on walking, flexibility and muscle strengthening.
Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Sunni” Williams had initially been sent on a days-long mission to test out Boeing’s Starliner on its first crewed flight.
But after the spaceship developed propulsion problems, they stayed in space at the International Space Station whilst their craft flew back empty.
The two accompanying rescue members, American Nick Hague and Russian Aleksandr Gorbunov, joined them months after in September before they all came back together on Tuesday.
Tense footage also showed the capsule flying down at incredibly high speeds before parachutes were suddenly deployed.
The spaceship reached a temperature of nearly 2,000C when it re-entered the atmosphere.
As the capsule flew down, it dramatically slowed down from more than 17,000mph to completely stationary within just minutes.
When it landed, the astronauts were greeted from the control centre: “Nick, Alec, Butch, Suni – on behalf of SpaceX, welcome home.”
Nasa spokesperson Jaden Jennings said that the “splashdown was spectacular”, and that they had “optimal conditions” for the returning mission to Earth.
Timeline of their extended stay on the ISS
- 5 June 2024: Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore launch to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft for what was intended to be an eight-day test mission.
- June 2024: Starliner successfully docks at the ISS after experiencing helium leaks and a thruster issue. The mission is extended due to the technical issues.
- August 2024: NASA announces that Williams and Wilmore will return to Earth on a SpaceX capsule instead of the Starliner due to ongoing technical concerns with the Boeing spacecraft. Their mission is indefinitely extended.
- September 2024: The uncrewed Starliner capsule returns to Earth.
- December 2024: NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov arrive at the ISS on SpaceX Dragon Freedom (Crew-9) as part of the rescue mission.
- November 2024: Thanksgiving is celebrated on board the ISS.
- 7 March 2025: Sunita Williams hands over command of the ISS to Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin in preparation for her return to Earth.
- 18 March 2025 (around 5am GMT): Williams, Wilmore, Hague, and Gorbunov undock from the ISS in the SpaceX Dragon capsule.
- 19 March 2025 (around 10pmGMT): The SpaceX Dragon capsule splashes down safely off the coast of Florida, near Tallahassee, marking the end of Williams and Wilmore’s 286-day mission.
- Post-return (starting 19 March 2025): The astronauts begin a 45-day rehabilitation programme to help them readjust to Earth’s gravity.
She added: “A new core memory was made today.”
After the successful landing, recovery teams arrived in “fast boats” to complete safety checks and retrieve the parachutes.
A SpaceX recovery vessel then made its way to the craft, picked it up and opened the spaceship to allow the crew out for their first breath of fresh air.
In a tense moment just before the landing, the capsule lost all communications with the command centre for several minutes.
This phenomenon is usual, as during the capsule’s re-entry into the atmosphere plasma builds up around the shield and it gets extremely hot.
Communications returned several minutes later as usual once the capsule had entered the atmosphere.
Nasa has rejected the wording “stranded”, emphasizing that the pair could have been evacuated in an emergency if necessary.
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The situation attracted Elon Musk when in an interview with Fox News, he claimed the astronauts were left in space for political reasons.
Musk said on X that SpaceX could have brought Williams and Wilmore back sooner and that the Biden Administration turned his offer down.
But Nasa officials hit back saying their decisions were based on scheduling for flights as well as the International Space Station’s needs.
This was astronaut Aleksandr Gorbunov’s first trip to space, while U.S. man Nick Hague previously spent 203 days on the space station in 2019.
Wilmore and Williams’ 286-day stay exceeds the usual six-month ISS rotation but ranks only sixth among US records for single-mission duration.
Frank Rubio holds the top spot at 371 days in 2023, while the world record remains with Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent a whopping 437 consecutive days aboard the Mir station.
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