NASA shares Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s Earth return details

NASA has announced details for stranded astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s return to Earth from the International Space Station with SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.

SpaceX lifted off a Falcon 9 rocket on March 14 with Crew-10 astronauts inside Dragon spacecraft from Launch Complex 30A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

On March 16, the Dragon spacecraft docked at the space station at 12:04 a.m. EDT, while the orbiting lab, was roughly 260 statute miles over the Atlantic Ocean. The spacecraft was docked at the forward-facing port of the Harmony module. An hour later, the on-board astronauts entered the Space Station after opening hatches.

According to the information, Dragon spacecraft closure preparations will begin at 10:45 p.m. EDT, Monday, March 17.

NASA and SpaceX are now assessing weather and splashdown conditions off Florida’s coast to return the Crew-9 mission. The closest opportunity to undock would be Tuesday, March 18. This event will be covered online and provide you with updated information on all key milestones.

The Crew-9 astronauts include Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, Nick Hague, Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

Among these, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were launched with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft for an 8-day test mission in early June. However, the spacecraft’s internal issues led expanded this brief visit to the space station into a super long stay. That said, both astronauts now spent around 10-month on the space station.

Mission managers are employed on this task and monitoring weather conditions in the splashdown zone. This factor will be important for the Dragon before it closes hatches and initiates the undocking sequence.

Here are the current timelines and milestones for Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s Crew-9 return to Earth.

Monday, March 17

• 10:45 p.m. – Hatch closing coverage begins

Tuesday, March 18

• 12:45 a.m. – Undocking coverage begins
• 1:05 a.m. – Undocking
• 5:11 p.m. – Deorbit burn (time is approximate)
• 5:57 p.m. – Splashdown (time is approximate)

NASA will continue to live coverage during the spacecraft’s undocking and way to the landing site.

Note – The mission dates including milestones could change based on the weather conditions.

(source)