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(TAMPA) A nine-month long trip into space has finally concluded as astronauts Sunita Williams, and Butch Wilmore are once again back on Earth. Their return capsule landed just off the coast of Tallahassee, on March 18th. Their trip into space was originally planned for one week only, however, due to numerous complications with the Boeing Starliner crew capsule, they were transferred over to SpaceX. The astronauts ended up staying in space 278 days longer than anticipated, and their return trip home was delayed. During their extended stay, they circled the Earth over 4,000 times and traveled a massive distance of 121 million miles.
Despite the unexpected situation, Sunita Williams remained positive.
“About staying up here longer, one of the things I was sort of regretting about a short-duration flight is that I wasn’t going to be able to share it with a lot of people,” said Williams.
While in space, Williams and Wilmore had conducted many experiments. Williams kept a journal documenting life way above the Earth. She also became the space stations commander after about three months.
“This is my happy place,” said Williams. “I love being up here in space it’s just fun. You know every day you do something that’s “work”, you can do it upside down. You can do it sideways, so it adds a little different perspective.”
Both Wilmore and Williams received much support and prayer from their family members and loved ones. Having that support from the people that mean the most to them gave them all the more motivation to keep their head up and stay positive.
When rescuers came to the capsule to retrieve the astronauts, they were assisted out and put in stretchers right away as spending so much time in a space station with no gravity, had their bodies feeling indifferent about Earth’s gravity, so before they can see their loved ones again they will need to undergo some treatment to get their bodies used to the gravity of Earth again, but that does not change the fact that they are both super happy to be back on the planet they call home.