The end is in sight for Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, and with the pair of 'stranded' astronauts finally due to land back on Earth on Tuesday, March 18, they'll have spent a jaw-dropping 285 days in space.
Considering they were only supposed to be up there for eight days, their unexpectedly elongated stay has become national headline news. With Elon Musk accusing the Biden administration of 'abandoning' Williams and Wilmore up there, President Donald Trump tasked the SpaceX CEO with getting them back.
It's not that simple, and while NASA moved up the rescue attempts by reusing a veteran Dragon craft, there have been several setbacks.
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The planned March 12 launch was scuppered by mechanical failures, while a second attempt was called off due to bad weather. It was third time lucky, and when the SpaceX Crew-10 docked with the International Space Station at 12:04 a.m. EDT on March 16, there were emotional scenes as Williams and Wilmore met the crew that would replace them. Commander Anne McClain, pilot Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov are taking over from Williams, Wilmore, and Crew-9 astronauts Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov, with the incoming team expected to stay up there for the next six months.
It was all smiles and hugs as Crew-10 came aboard the ISS, with the various newcomers sharing their thanks for the hard work of NASA and the other agencies. Williams said a few short words, telling the audience: "Houston, thanks for tuning in this early morning, it was a wonderful day, great to see our friends arrive, so thank you so much."
The comment section was soon flooded with joyous replies, with many amazed at how these various nations can work together up in space while they might be at odds back on Earth.
One person cheered: "So happy to see the smooth ride up there. Wonderful job all of the ground control crew and space agencies working together. Now get those people home safely. God speed!"
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Another added: "I agree wholeheartedly! Russian, Indian, Japanese, American....humanity seems to be defined by which country you're from but our home is Earth so we don't really have nationalities in my opinion....we are all citizens of Earth!"
A third concluded: "Japanese, Russian and Americans can work together in peace and harmony. No need to engage in needless wars."
Williams and Wilmore will soon be blasting off from their home for the last nine months, hopefully returning to Earth on March 18. They'll be quickly sent into a rehab regime, although we imagine the aftermath of that will involve a neverending barrage of interviews and book opportunities. We can already imagine Netflix execs clambering over each other to release a dramatization of their ordeal.