Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are now closer home. They departed this morning from the International Space Station on the Dragon spacecraft after being “stranded” for nine months on the orbital hub. NASA said Crew-9 undocked at 10:35 am (IST), sharing a video of the spacecraft detaching from the space station. It is expected to complete its return journey in another 17 hours.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched the Dragon spacecraft atop its Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday to bring back the two astronauts after President Donald Trump accused the previous Biden administration of abandoning them.
Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore, both former Navy pilots, had flown to the orbital lab on June 5 last year on what was supposed to be an eight-day mission and the first crewed flight of a Boeing Starliner. They were left stranded after the Starliner capsule suffered propulsion issues. Deemed unfit to fly, it returned uncrewed in September.
