A vertiginous reentry in the Earth’s atmosphere, in which the exterior of his ship will be put to red alive, will be the final test in the space odyssey lived by Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. Overcome this challenge, which is expected to begin on Tuesday night, at 22:11 (Spanish peninsular time), the capsule of the two astronauts trapped In space for nine and a half months, posing at sea off the coast of Florida (USA) at 22:57.
It still orbits around the earth at a speed of more than 27,000 kilometers per hour. The deceleration to end in soft ametering on the Atlantic Ocean, at a speed of bicycle ride, will be possible thanks to the heated friction of the atmosphere and the final help of two braking parachutes and the four main gigantic parachutes of that dragon capsule of the Spacex space company.
All astronauts who return to Earth live a thrilling very similar reentry sequence and their missions close with reception scenes like these. But the difference is that, in this case, before that expected happy ending Williams and Wilmore have already starred in a film that had never been seen in the history of the space race. in a Boeing Starliner ship for a brief visit of eight days to the space station; However, his mission has finally lasted 285 days full of uncertainties and script changes. And in the final stretch two new actors, Elon Musk and Donald Trump have appeared, who have tried to use them as a political weapon against the former US president, Joe Biden.
The propulsion failures of his ship on the first leg changed everything. After a whole summer of waiting and postponements, in which they became celebrities around the world as “astronauts trapped in space”, in August 2024, the space company of the billionaire Elon Musk, which has the monopoly of private transport to the ISS. Williams and Wilmore had climbed to the station to perform the first test flight of another private ship that aspired to compete with those of Musk. But the Starliner fiasco leaves the Boeing project to transport astronauts to the space station in the air.
When it was decided that Williams and Wilmore would return in a Musk ship, NASA were made up of the normal rotation of astronauts in NASA, making them a hole in the next replacement mission that arrived and returning to Earth about six months later. That mission was the Crew-9, who arrived at the ISS on September 30, 2024 with only two astronauts on board: also American Nick Hague and Russian Alexander Gorbunov, who have now also made the return flight with the two trapped.
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were never really trapped in space. NASA said that at all times they could have returned: first in the Starliner problem and, since the arrival of the Crew-9in its own proven reliability capsule to return home. No one could call them “trapped” or “stranded” with a minimum of respect for reality. However, Donald Trump returned to power last January. And in his frantic beginning of mandate, the new US president called Williams and Wilmore “Abandoned astronauts in space”
Despite the controversy generated at the last minute by Musk and Trump in their own social networks —x and Truth – finally the story followed the course that was already planned. Although with a month late, Williams, Wilmore, Hague and Gorbunov at the station in February. Finally, the relief crew Crew-10 He arrived in another different dragon ship last Sunday, March 16 and, after a brief transfer of powers, in the early hours of Tuesday began the return flight with which the space soap opera of astronauts trapped in the ISS has finally completed.
