Posted on 03/18/2025 5:09:15 PM PDT by Morgana
NASA's stranded astronauts have finally returned to Earth after spending nine grueling months on the International Space Station (ISS).
Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore splashed down off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida at 5:57pm ET this evening.
They were accompanied by the Crew-9 astronauts, NASA's Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
A recovery ship pulled the capsule out of the water and loaded it onto the deck. The four astronauts gradually emerged through the hatch and took their first breaths of fresh air in months.
The recovery crew helped them onto stretchers as the weight of Earth's gravity pressed down on their frail bodies.
Williams and Wilmore smiled and waved at the camera, even giving a double thumbs-up as the crew wheeled them off for a medical check alongside their colleagues.
Following that initial health assessment, they will be flown to their crew quarters at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston for several more days of routine health checks.
If they are given the all-clear by NASA's flight surgeons, they will be able to go home to their families, who have been missing them for the last 286 days.
Although they have completed their 17-hour journey back to Earth, the astronauts now face a brutal road to recovery. They will have to endure weeks of physical therapy to regain their strength after months spent in low gravity.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I’m guessing Biden wasn’t there to welcome them.
NONE OF THE COMMERCIAL AIRLINES RUN ON SCHEDULE AS WELL AS MUSK’S ROCKETS......
Biden left them to die. Capitalism did what Communism could not.
If you asked Joe about Sunita Williams, he would start talking about what a great tennis player she is...
Competence did what incompetence could not.
I liked seeing the pod of dolphins welcoming the astronauts home.
How the hell did they feed two people every day for 8.5 months they weren’t supposed to be there?
Did a Obama appointed judge rule that the astronauts have to go back to space
Biden left these heroes to ROT in space because he didnt want the optics of having Elon rescue them and give Trump a win before the election that is how truly EVIL joe Biden is
It was wonderful watching them be pulled out of the capsule.
Can you imagine being on earth for the first time in NINE MONTHS???????
Unfathomable.
Did Sunita possibly cause the malfunction? I remember when Gus Grissom caught a lot of flak for blowing the escape hatch too soon.
If harris had won they would still be up there.
This is not something particular to this crew. All space station astronauts go through a recovery and physical rehab period. If we want to continue going to space we have to solve the issue of microgravity.
CC
While being on the stretcher, they gave a “thumbs-up” and weakly said “Let’s go Brandon”.
Roger Ramjet Ten-in-One™ proton pills, most likely.
But in any case things can go very wrong in space and so you may need to take care of guests. Back when we were sending up shuttles it was theorized that in case of emergency the shuttle could dock with the ISS.
Nine months....like a rebirth.
Unscrewed supply ships go to the station at regular intervals. It was just a matter of adjusting the deliveries.
CC
"It was a dark and stormy night as they prepared to make the dangerous voyage back home!",
but that wouldn't work well for an outer space mission. I'm surprised at how routine the SpaceX capsule recoveries have become. From hours down to half an hour to get them out on the recovery ship. Nice job, SpaceX and NASA!
Stretchers are SOP for all long duration flights as are medical checks, obviously.
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