Where Will SpaceX Crew Dragon With Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore Land In US

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams And Butch Wilmore started for Earth on Tuesday morning and are expected to reach Earth after a 17-hour journey.

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams And Butch Wilmore.

Source : NASA

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have departed from the International Space Station and are on their way back to Earth in SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

NASA has said that Crew-9 undocked at 10:35 am and is expected to complete its return journey in 17 hours.

Sunita Williams and Wilmore were on a Boeing Starliner spacecraft to test its maiden crewed voyage in June last year and went on space expedition, which was expected to last for a few weeks. However, the Boeing Starliner suffered propulsion issues and was deemed unfit by the space administration to fly the duo astronauts back to Earth.

The two astronauts were stranded in space for nine months on the orbital hub.

After much efforts, the two began their journey back home in Elon Musk's SpaceX-launched Dragon spacecraft on Tuesday.

When And Where Will The Dragon Spacecraft Land?

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams And Butch Wilmore started for Earth on Tuesday morning and are expected to reach Earth after a 17-hour journey.

The Crew Dragon will make a splashdown off the Gulf Coast near Tallahassee in Florida in the US. The location was decided among several potential locations depending on weather and ocean conditions.

The splashdown will be off the Gulf Coast in the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America) at around 3:27 am on Wednesday IST. However, the precise timing and location could change depending on weather conditions.

After the splashdown, the crews will recover the vehicle and help the astronauts exit onto a ship and Williams and Wilmore will step out breathing the Earth's air for the first time in nine months. The astronauts will then be flown to Houston, the home of the Johnson Space Center, which is the hub of NASA’s human spaceflight operations.

Wilmore and Williams have been in space for almost 286 days. This is far longer than a standard ISS mission that usually lasts 6 months. However, the record for the highest time spent in space is held by NASA astronaut Frank Rubio who spent 371 days at a stretch in space due to a spacecraft glitch.