New Delhi: NASA’s Crew-9 astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have returned to Earth after spending more than nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS). And at 3:27 AM IST, they safely splashed down off the coast of Florida, on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk praised both NASA and SpaceX teams for the mission success on social media. Congratulations to the SpaceX and NASA teams on another successful astronaut return! “Thank you, President Donald Trump, for making this mission a priority.
Sunita Williams and another astronaut named Butch Wilmore, and their safe return has been celebrated across much of the United States, with both NASA and SpaceX receiving much praise for the mission. The White House also celebrated the mission, tweeting, “Promises made, promises kept: President Trump promised to return stranded astronauts from space, and he did.”
Union Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, called Williams’ safe return a moment of pride and relief for India as well as the world. He wrote on Twitter, “A moment of pride, glory, and relief! The world is now applauding the safe return of this great daughter of India, who by her sheer will, guts and tenacity, has proved her mettle against all odds in space,” he said.