With their nine-month tenure aboard the International Space Station finally drawing to an end, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are one step closer to returning home.
Due to problems with their Boeing Starliner, the two NASA astronauts were left stranded on the ISS until a relief crew could arrive and take over their responsibilities, even though their intended stay in orbit was just eight days.
Elon Musk, a tech magnate, accused the Biden administration of “abandoning” them for political purposes when President Donald Trump ordered him to go rescue them, causing the pair to become a media celebrity.
Their rescue was expedited by NASA, and just when everything appeared to be proceeding as planned, a mission scheduled for March 12 was abruptly cancelled. Unfavorable weather forced the cancellation of a later flight, but SpaceX’s Crew-10 finally took off, making it their third lucky flight. When the capsule docked with the ISS about 29 hours later, Williams and Wilmore finally recognized they were returning home, and there were tearful moments.
On March 16, Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, pilot Nichole Ayers, and commander Anne McClain docked and entered the ISS orbiting lab at 12:04 a.m. EDT.
First through the hatch was Onishi, then Peskov, Ayers, then McClain. Williams, Wilmore, and Crew-9 astronauts Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov may soon return home as the Crew-10 crew got comfortable in their new quarters.
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