Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. Astronauts where the whole world looks at are on earth

Suni Willimas and Butch Wilmore, “lost” in space Astronauts finally returned home. Shortly after 6am, Polish time they both left the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule. They were accompanied by two other astronauts. The whole process of disconnecting the capsule from the ISS was fully automated and did not require any action from the crew. A journey to Earth took the four astronauts 17 hours.

The Dragon capsule had to withstand the dangerous conditions created by the earthly atmosphere. The thermal cover has been up to 1600 degrees Celsius. With the entry into the atmosphere, Dragon began to slow down, and finally opened four large parachutes.

The launch of the capsule was scheduled for 17.57 – in Poland 22.57. It happened – almost every minute – off the coast of Florida.

“It was an honor to call the station home, live, work and be part of a team that extends to the whole world, working together – said the commander of the Crew -9 mission Nick Hague with NASA to flight and ISS controllers after leaving the station.

On board Dragon, in addition to Williams and Wilmore, there were also two other astronauts – Nick Hague from NASA and Aleksander Gorbunov from Roskosmos. They both arrived at the ISS in September.

Williams and Wilmore were preparing for a mission of several days, but their space ship – the Boeing Starliner – has failed. It turned out to be insufficiently safe so that astronauts could return to earth. For nine long months they lived at the ISS, where they performed diligently commissioned work and practiced physical condition to prevent the harmful impact of weightlessness as much as possible.

For Suni Williams it was not in space for the first time. Considering the duration of her previous missions, she spent a total of 322 days outside Earth. Butch Wilmore spent a total of 167 days in space. He took four space walks during all his missions.