Sunita Williams returns to Earth after 9 months and 14 days
Indian-origin American astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have returned to Earth after 9 months and 14 days. Along with them are two more astronauts of Crew-9, Nick Hague of America and Alexander Gorbunov of Russia. Their Dragon spacecraft landed on the coast of Florida on March 19 at 3:27 am Indian time.
These four astronauts left the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday (March 18). When the spacecraft entered the Earth’s atmosphere, its temperature had increased to more than 1650 degrees Celsius. During this time there was a communication blackout for about 7 minutes, that is, there was no contact with the spacecraft.
It took 17 hours to return to Earth from the space station
It took about 17 hours from the separation of the Dragon capsule to landing in the sea. On March 18, at 08:35 am, the spacecraft hatched, that is, the door closed. The spacecraft separated from the ISS at 10:35 am.
On March 19, the deorbit burn began at 2:41 am. That is, the spacecraft’s engine was fired in the opposite direction from the orbit. This led to the spacecraft’s entry into the Earth’s atmosphere and landing in the sea off the coast of Florida at 3:27 am.
Went on an 8-day mission, but it took more than 9 months
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore went on Boeing and NASA’s 8-day joint ‘Crew Flight Test Mission’. The purpose of this mission was to test the ability of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to take astronauts to the space station and bring them back.
The astronauts also had to do research and several experiments in 8 days at the space station. But after a glitch in the thruster, their 8-day mission became more than 9 months.
