NASA astronauts who flew on Boeing's Starliner capsule on their way home after 9 months
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore originally planned to stay just a week on the space station, but problems with their Boeing vehicle forced them to remain there.
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are finally coming home.
The astronauts, who had planned to visit the International Space Station for just a week but have been there more than nine months, departed early Tuesday.
Their journey back to Earth will close out an unusual and closely watched chapter in spaceflight history. Williams and Wilmore became household names after launching on the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule in June. But they encountered problems with the vehicle’s thrusters while docking to the space station, which eventually led NASA to bring the Starliner back to Earth without anyone on board.
That forced Williams and Wilmore to remain in orbit for far more time than planned. But at long last, they departed the space station on Tuesday at 1:05 a.m. ET aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
The astronauts should then splash down off the coast of Florida at 5:57 p.m. ET.Alongside them will be NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who are wrapping up a roughly six-month mission at the space station.
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