Wilmore and Williams, two veteran NASA astronauts and retired US Navy test pilots, were strapped inside the Crew Dragon spacecraft with two other astronauts and separated from the space station's orbit at 1:05 a.m. Eastern time on March 18 (12:05 p.m. Vietnam time), beginning the 17-hour trip back to Earth.
The four-person crew is expected to land on the Florida coast late on March 18, at 5:57 p.m. Eastern Time (4:57 a.m. March 19, Vietnam time).
The return of astronauts Wilmore and Williams capped an unusually long, uncertain mission fraught with technical complications that turned a rare case of NASA contingency planning into a political and global event.
The pair of astronauts were set to launch into space as the first crew of Starliner in June 2024 for a planned eight-day test mission. But problems with Starliner’s propulsion system led to repeated delays in their return home, culminating in NASA’s decision last year to require them to bring a SpaceX spacecraft back this year as part of the agency’s crew rotation schedule.
After returning to Earth, the astronauts will be taken to the crew quarters at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston for several days of routine health checks, before NASA surgeons approve them to return home to their families.
Living in space for months can affect the human body in many ways, from muscle atrophy to potential vision loss.
By the time they return to Earth, Wilmore and Williams will have logged 286 days in space, longer than the average ISS mission of six months, but still far behind the record of American astronaut Frank Rubio, who spent 371 consecutive days in space (ending in 2023). This was the unexpected result of a coolant leak on a Russian spacecraft.
By the end of her third spaceflight, Williams will have spent a total of 608 days in space, behind American astronaut Peggy Whitson's record of 675 days. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko set the world record last year with 878 days in space.
Source: https://daidoanket.vn/cac-phi-hanh-gia-nasa-bat-dau-hanh-trinh-tro-ve-trai-dat-10301821.html
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