NASA’s SpaceX Staff-9 finished the company’s 9th industrial staff rotation project to the Global Area Station on Tuesday, splashing down safely in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, within the Gulf of The usa.
NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, returned to Earth at 5:57 p.m. EDT. Groups aboard SpaceX restoration vessels retrieved the spacecraft and its staff. After returning to shore, the staff will fly to NASA’s Johnson Area Middle in Houston and reunite with their households.
“We’re delighted to have Suni, Butch, Nick, and Aleksandr house after their months-long project undertaking important science, era demonstrations, and upkeep aboard the Global Area Station,” mentioned NASA appearing Administrator Janet Petro. “In keeping with President Trump’s route, NASA and SpaceX labored diligently to tug the agenda a month previous. This world staff and our groups at the floor embraced the Trump Management’s problem of an up to date, and reasonably distinctive, project plan, to carry our staff house. Via preparation, ingenuity, and willpower, we succeed in good stuff in combination for the good thing about humanity, pushing the bounds of what’s imaginable from low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars.”
Hague and Gorbunov lifted off at 1:17 p.m. Sept. 28, 2024, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Area Release Complicated 40 at Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station in Florida. The next day to come, they docked to the forward-facing port of the station’s Unity module. Williams and Wilmore introduced aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft and United Release Alliance Atlas V rocket on June 5, 2024, from Area Release Complicated 41 as a part of the company’s Boeing Staff Flight Check. The duo arrived on the area station on June 6. In August, NASA introduced the uncrewed go back of Starliner to Earth and built-in Wilmore and Williams as a part of the gap station’s Expedition 71/72 for a go back on Staff-9. The staff of 4 undocked at 1:05 a.m. Tuesday to start out the travel house.
Williams and Wilmore traveled 121,347,491 miles all through their project, spent 286 days in area, and finished 4,576 orbits round Earth. Hague and Gorbunov traveled 72,553,920 miles all through their project, spent 171 days in area, and finished 2,736 orbits round Earth. The Staff-9 project was once the primary spaceflight for Gorbunov. Hague has logged 374 days in area over his two missions, Williams has logged 608 days in area over her 3 flights, and Wilmore has logged 464 days in area over his 3 flights.
All through its project, Staff-9 contributed to a bunch of science and upkeep actions and era demonstrations. Williams carried out two spacewalks, joined by way of Wilmore for one and Hague for any other, disposing of a radio frequency staff antenna meeting from the station’s truss, amassing samples from the station’s exterior floor for research, putting in patches to hide broken spaces of sunshine filters on an X-ray telescope, and extra. Williams now holds the document for overall spacewalking time by way of a feminine astronaut, with 62 hours and six mins out of doors of station, and is fourth at the all-time spacewalk length listing.
The American staff individuals carried out greater than 150 distinctive clinical experiments and era demonstrations between them, with over 900 hours of study. This analysis integrated investigations on plant enlargement and high quality, in addition to the potential for stem mobile era to deal with blood illnesses, autoimmune problems, and cancers. In addition they examined lights programs to assist astronauts take care of circadian rhythms, loaded the primary picket satellite tv for pc for deployment, and took samples from the gap station’s external to check whether or not microorganisms can continue to exist in area.
The Staff-9 project was once the fourth flight of the Dragon spacecraft named Freedom. It additionally up to now supported NASA’s SpaceX Staff-4, Axiom Venture 2, and Axiom Venture 3. The spacecraft will go back to Florida for inspection and processing at SpaceX’s refurbishing facility at Cape Canaveral Area Pressure Station, the place groups will check up on the Dragon, analyze knowledge on its efficiency, and start processing for its subsequent flight.
The Staff-9 flight is a part of NASA’s Business Staff Program, and its go back to Earth follows at the heels of NASA’s SpaceX Staff-10 release, which docked to the station on March 16, starting any other long-duration science expedition.
The purpose of NASA’s Business Staff Program is protected, dependable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the gap station and occasional Earth orbit. This system supplies further analysis time and has higher alternatives for discovery aboard humanity’s microgravity testbed for exploration, together with serving to NASA get ready for human exploration of the Moon and Mars.
Be told extra about NASA’s Business Staff Program at:
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Amber Jacobson / Joshua Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
amber.c.jacobson@nasa.gov / joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov
Kenna Pell / Sandra Jones
Johnson Area Middle, Houston
281-483-5111
kenna.m.pell@nasa.gov / sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
Steve Siceloff / Stephanie Plucinsky
Kennedy Area Middle, Florida
321-867-2468
steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov / stephanie.n.plucinsky@nasa.gov
