After months in area, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are lastly scheduled to return residence in a SpaceX capsule on Tuesday night.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
So think about this – you go on a piece journey that is presupposed to final every week, and you find yourself being there for 9 months. And likewise, that work journey, it is in outer area. OK, this may increasingly sound a bit of nuts, however that’s precisely what occurred to 2 American astronauts. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have lastly landed after being on the Worldwide Area Station since final summer season.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: And splashdown. Crew-9 again on Earth.
(CHEERING)
CHANG: Their go to and return have change into political, with President Trump and Elon Musk claiming that the astronauts have been intentionally stranded by the Biden administration. NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel has been monitoring this area opera and joins us now with extra. Hello, Geoff.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE: Hello, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, what a saga it has been. Inform us extra about tonight’s return.
BRUMFIEL: Yeah, effectively, the astronauts traveled residence aboard a capsule constructed by Elon Musk’s firm, SpaceX. It reentered Earth’s environment, flew via the air like a comet, then deployed its parachutes and landed off the Gulf Coast off of Florida the place the astronauts – Williams, Wilmore, one other astronaut named Nick Hague and a Russian cosmonaut – have been greeted truly by a pod of dolphins. It was fairly cute to observe.
CHANG: Wow, so cool.
BRUMFIEL: They swam across the capsule. After which they have been later retrieved by SpaceX staff aboard a ship.
CHANG: (Laughter) Much less thrilling than the dolphins, perhaps, however I’m so glad everybody has returned residence safely. Are you able to simply clarify for us – why have been the 2 astronauts in area for therefore lengthy?
BRUMFIEL: It began in June of final yr once they launched to area aboard an experimental capsule constructed by Boeing. That capsule had issues with its thrusters because it approached the station. So NASA needed to determine what to do, and in the long run, they despatched the Boeing capsule residence empty and left Williams and Wilmore as a part of the common area station crew till they may get a journey residence, which turned out to be about 285 days after they acquired there.
CHANG: Wow. And the way uncommon is it for astronauts to be in area for that lengthy?
BRUMFIEL: You realize, I spoke to Scott Kelly, a retired astronaut who spent practically a yr aboard the station. He thought this was a completely affordable name.
SCOTT KELLY: What made essentially the most sense was to only depart Butch and Suni up there. I imply, they’re professionals.
BRUMFIEL: You realize, they have been initially presupposed to be up for a couple of week, although, so this ended up being a story about being caught in area. It type of relies upon what you imply by caught as a result of they did all the time have a strategy to get residence.
KELLY: They’d a SpaceX Dragon there as an emergency lifeboat to carry them again at any time they wanted to.
CHANG: (Laughter) I need a dragon. OK, so the astronauts acquired reassigned to the area station. That is how this complete saga began. Are you able to simply inform us how did Trump and Musk amplify the story about how they acquired caught?
BRUMFIEL: Effectively, earlier this yr, Trump and Musk claimed that not solely have been the astronauts caught, they have been intentionally stranded by the Biden administration. They’ve repeated that time and again. This is Musk talking in an interview with Texas Senator Ted Cruz launched yesterday.
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ELON MUSK: It wasn’t actually even a NASA resolution. It was simply that the Biden White Home didn’t need to have somebody who was pro-Trump rescuing astronauts proper earlier than the election.
BRUMFIEL: Quite a few NASA officers have mentioned that declare simply is not true, that there have been a lot of technical and budgetary causes to go away Williams and Wilmore on board to assist run the station.
CHANG: OK. And the way are the astronauts doing again on Earth now?
BRUMFIEL: They could not have requested for a nicer day to land, and, , it was all smiles, thumbs-up and waves as they got here out of their capsule. They’re doing nice, and so they appear to be very glad to be again residence.
CHANG: That is so good to listen to. That’s NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel. Thanks a lot, Geoff.
BRUMFIEL: Thanks, Ailsa.
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