United States astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will finally return to Earth after being stranded at the International Space Station for the past nine months, the New York Post reports.
Wilmore, 62, and Williams, 59, are currently aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Capsule ‘Freedom,’ which is scheduled to splashdown in Florida at around 5:57 p.m. local time on Tuesday (March 18), according to NASA. The two astronauts were initially scheduled to spend 10 days at the ISS in June and return home with fellow American Nick Hague and Russian Aleksandr Gorbunov folllowing the completion of their Crew 9 million, however, got stranded when their Boeing Starliner capsule suffered leaks and mechanical issues, forcing NASA to return the craft without anyone aboard.
SpaceX served as the only backup available to return the two astronauts and was scheduled to launch after Crew 10 arrived this past weekend to relieve Wilmore and Williams of their ISS duties. SpaceX founder Elon Musk, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump and the leader of his newly launched Department of Government Efficiency, blamed former President Joe Biden for the two astronauts not returning sooner, claiming plans were shelved and that the mission had been marred by political mudslinging, which Biden administration officials have denied.
Wilmore and Williams have spent an estimated 285 days in space, which is the sixth-longest NASA spaceflight mission.
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