Welcome home, Sunita Williams! India, US celebrate NASA astronauts' safe return//
Welcome home, Sunita Williams! India, US celebrate NASA astronauts' safe return Sunita Williams Return: Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Earth after spending over nine months at the International Space Station (ISS) due to unexpected delays. Their spacecraft, SpaceX’s Dragon Freedom capsule, successfully splashed down off the Florida coast near Tallahassee, at 5.57 pm ET on Tuesday (3:27 am IST, Wednesday). ‘Butch and Suni’ were accompanied by astronauts Nick Hague and Aleksandr Grebyonkin who reached the ISS in December as part of a rescue mission planned by NASA and SpaceX. “On behalf of SpaceX, welcome home,” radioed SpaceX Mission Control in California. An hour after their 17-hour-long journey, the astronauts were out of their scorched capsule, waving and smiling at the cameras while being hustled away in reclining stretchers for routine medical checks. Political undertones of the successful rescue were hard to miss as The White House claimed that the rescue mission was due to President Trump's efforts. “PROMISE MADE, PROMISE KEPT: President Trump pledged to rescue the astronauts stranded in space for nine months. Today, they safely splashed down in the Gulf of America, thanks to @ElonMusk, @SpaceX, and @NASA!” it wrote on X. Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore travelled to the ISS in June last year for a scheduled eight-day mission. They were forced to stay as the Boeing Starliner capsule developed issues with its propulsion system. The duo was the first crew to fly Boeing's Starliner in a test flight. The faulty capsule returned to Earth last September. Sunita Williams | Key points Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore spent 286 days on the International Space Station, where they conducted over 4500 orbits and travelled more than 121 million statute miles The crew will undergo NASA's 45-day post-mission rehabilitation program is designed to help astronauts recover from the physical effects of spaceflight. 'Butch and Suni' ended up spending 286 days in space — 278 days longer than anticipated when they launched. They circled Earth 4,576 times and travelled 121 million miles (195 million kilometres) by the time of splashdown. Sunita Williams, capping her third spaceflight, will have tallied 608 cumulative days in space, the second most for any US astronaut after Peggy Whitson's 675 days. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko set the world record last year at 878 cumulative days. Follow all the updates here: Wed, 19 Mar 2025 11:17 PM Live updates to this blog end here. Wed, 19 Mar 2025 09:13 PM Sunita Williams Return Live Updates: Gujarat CM congratulates NASA astronauts on safe return Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel expressed his joy and extended heartfelt congratulations to Sunita Williams, the daughter of Gujarat and the pride of the nation, on her safe return to Earth after an extraordinary nine-month mission at the International Space Station, as per a release. Wed, 19 Mar 2025 08:31 PM Sunita Williams Return Live Updates: Celebrations at Kalpana Chawla's school after NASA astronauts land safely on Earth Students at Karnal's Tagore Baal Niketan joined the millions in taking an ecstatic sigh of relief on Wednesday as Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams returned to Earth after 286 days of being stranded in space, PTI reported. The same school gave the world a brilliant astronaut in Kalpana Chawla, who was the first woman of India-origin to go in space. Wed, 19 Mar 2025 07:35 PM Sunita Williams Return Live Updates: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar hails NASA astronaut's safe landing on Earth Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday expressed happiness over the safe return of NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and her fellow Crew-9 members to Earth, PTI reported. "I extend my heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to NASA, SpaceX and astronauts for their successful return to Earth," the statement quoted the chief minister as saying. Wed, 19 Mar 2025 06:11 PM Sunita Williams Return Live Updates: Jharkhand Guv's high praises for NASA astronaut Welcoming NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore back to Earth, Jharkhand Governor Santosh Gangwar said their patience, courage and confidence have set a new example of inspiration. "Heartiest congratulations to Indian-origin American astronaut Sunita Williams on her safe return after a 9-month adventurous journey in space! Their patience, courage and confidence have set a new example of inspiration," Governor Gangwar said in a post on X. सुनीता विलियम्स की वापसी: अप्रत्याशित देरी के कारण अंतर्राष्ट्रीय अंतरिक्ष स्टेशन (ISS) पर नौ महीने से अधिक समय बिताने के बाद सुनीता विलियम्स और बुच विल्मोर पृथ्वी पर लौट आए।
