SpaceX owner Elon Musk's 1st reaction as NASA astronauts Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore return after 286 days on ISS

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Donald Trump have blamed former US President Joe Biden's administration for the nine-month-long delay

Updated on: Mar 19, 2025, 07:46:47 IST

By HT News Desk

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NASA Crew-9 astronauts Sunita Williams, Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov breathed earthly air for the first time in over nine months on Wednesday (India time) after the successful splashdown of SpaceX's Dragon capsule.

This image taken from video released by SpaceX shows, from left, NASA's Butch Wilmore, Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov, NASA’s Nick Hague, and NASA's Suni Williams wait to exit the SpaceX capsule after splashing down, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP)

Their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule named Freedom's heat shield endured scorching temperatures of around 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius) while re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. The spacecraft deployed its parachutes and splashed down off the coast of Florida, near Tallahassee, at 5.57 pm ET on Tuesday (3:27 am IST, Wednesday).

The Crew-9 members' successful return is due to a contingency plan devised by NASA with technical assistance from Elon Musk to bring ‘Butch and Suni’ from the ISS. The duo got stuck aboard the space station as their Boeing Starliner developed technical snags, rendering it unfit to use for returning to Earth.

SpaceX chief executive officer Elon Musk and Donald Trump have blamed former US President Joe Biden's administration for the nine-month long delay and alleged, without evidence, that they were not brought back for political reasons.

Musk reacted to the mission's success in a post on X. “Congratulations to the @SpaceX and @NASA teams for another safe astronaut return! Thank you to @POTUS for prioritizing this mission,” wrote the head of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

NASA and SpaceX representatives wouldn’t confirm Musk’s allegations on the Biden administration during a press conference this month. Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, said the agency looked at a range of options and worked with SpaceX to determine the best way to bring the astronauts home.

The White House repeated a contentious claim that Trump had accelerated the recovery timeline. “PROMISE MADE, PROMISE KEPT,” it wrote on X.

Soon after touchdown, a larger recovery vessel hoisted Freedom aboard. Teams opened the hatch, and one by one, the astronauts were helped out onto mobility aids, waving and flashing thumbs-up signs. They will be flown by helicopter to Houston, where they will begin NASA's 45-day rehabilitation program.

(With agency inputs)

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HT News Desk
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