International Desk //

Two prominent American astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams have finally been able to return to Earth after being stuck in the International Space Station (ISS) for 9 months.

Butch and Sunita went to the International Space Station on a week-long mission on June 6 last year. But the Boeing capsule they went on, the ‘Starliner’, developed a fault and due to safety reasons, they could not be returned to Earth on time.

The Indian Express reported that the SpaceX spacecraft Dragon was locked at 9:05 am on Tuesday (March 18) Bangladesh time. Then the crew put on their flight suits and completed the safety check. After all the waiting, the spacecraft separated from the International Space Station at around 11:05 am.

The four astronauts entered Earth’s atmosphere 17 hours after returning to Earth in the Crew Dragon as part of the ‘NASA Crew-9 Mission’. The capsule carrying them splashed down in the ocean about 50 miles off the coast of Florida, USA, at 3:57 am Bangladesh time on Wednesday.

Both Butch and Sunita are experienced NASA astronauts and retired US Navy pilots. “What an incredible journey!” said Crew Dragon commander and NASA astronaut Nick Hague about the return journey of the Crew Dragon.

Sunita, 59, and Butch, 62, have been busy with various scientific experiments and station maintenance for a long time.

Their work included repairing the station’s orientation control equipment, adding light filters for the Nixar X-ray telescope and replacing reflector devices on an international docking adapter.

Astronauts get to see sunrises and sunsets 16 times a day, because the ISS orbits the Earth 16 times every 24 hours.

This unique view has taught them to think about the Earth in a new way. Sunita said, it teaches us to think differently. There is only one Earth, we should protect it.

Butch would start his day at 4:30 am and Suni at 6:30 am every day. They would exercise for more than two hours every day to prevent the loss of bones and muscles due to being in space.

Butch, Sunita and two other American astronauts Don Pettit and Nick Hague voted from space in the US presidential election last year.

Sunita said, voting is our important responsibility as a citizen.

NASA made it easy for them to vote. The Mission Control Center in Houston sends them ballot papers via encrypted email. The astronauts fill them out and send them via satellite to a ground terminal in New Mexico. From there, it reached Mission Control and was later sent to the concerned county clerk.

Astronauts celebrated Christmas with joy while on the ISS. They wore Santa hats and reindeer headbands and sent greetings to people on Earth. They tossed microphones to each other as candy canes floated in the air. Sunita looked different as her long hair floated in zero gravity.

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