On Tuesday, March 18th, the long wait was finally over for the two NASA astronauts who were safely returned back to Earth. The astronauts Sunita William and Barry E. Wilmore had been stranded since the lift off on September 28th, 2024. NASA states, “NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 completed the agency’s ninth commercial crew rotation mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday, splashing down safely in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, in the Gulf of America.” NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission was the fourth flight for the Dragon spacecraft named Freedom. Previously, the spacecraft supported NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4, Axiom Mission 2, and Axiom Mission 3. In the article by NASA, it states, “the Crew-9 flight is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, and its return to Earth follows on the heels of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 launch, which docked to the station on March 16, beginning another long-duration science expedition.”
The journey was originally only planned for eight days but it turned into nine months due to a series of malfunctions and safety issues. First the capsule made it to the ISS but along the way they encountered a series of issues such as multiple helium leaks and malfunction with the thrusters. NASA didn’t want to risk flying William and Wilmore back because of the issues, so they decided to fly the capsule back to Earth with no crew in it. NASA found a replacement months later and while William and Wilmore were in the ISS for months they had Space Station’s regular crew rotation which is just replacing the aboard with new crew and it usually happens every six months. After nine months and many issues, the astronauts returned home safely after the SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico.
https://apnews.com/article/nasa-stuck-astronauts-spacex-boeing-419f98f239a25cfb54f970b8522dc1d2
https://apnews.com/article/nasa-stuck-astronauts-spacex-boeing-419f98f239a25cfb54f970b8522dc1d2
