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Sunita Williams’ return to Earth faces further delay
Initially, their return was extended by eight months to February; however, it is now scheduled for late March.
FILE PHOTO: NASA astronauts Sunita Williams, Nick Hague, Barry Wilmore, and Donald Pettit unbox Thanksgiving meals, from the International Space Station (ISS), in this screen grab taken from a handout video, released on November 26, 2024. / NASA/Handout via REUTERS
Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams and fellow NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore's return to Earth will be further delayed until at least late March, the agency said, taking what should have been an eight-day stay on the International Space Station to more than nine months.
The duo had traveled to the International Space Station in June for the test mission, but their return was extended by eight months to February, after the Boeing Starliner capsule they arrived on was deemed unfit to return them to Earth.
NASA said Williams and Wilmore, along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, would return to Earth after the four-member Crew-10 mission, now expected to take off in late March, reaches the space station.
The agency did not specify a date for the return of the astronauts. Hague and Gorbunov boarded the ISS in September, over three months after Williams and Wilmore.
"Known as a handover period, it allows Crew-9 to share any lessons learned with the newly arrived crew and support a better transition for ongoing science and maintenance at the complex," the agency added in the statement on Dec. 17.
The Crew-10 mission was originally slated to launch in February. NASA said the delay was to give the teams time to complete processing on a new Dragon spacecraft for the mission.
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