NASA reveals what’s next for astronauts safely back on Earth after nine months stuck in space

Published

2 months ago

March 19, 2025

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Two NASA astronauts have splashed down off the coast of Florida after spending more than nine months stuck in space.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams waved as they left their capsule – nearly an hour after it returned to Earth at about 6pm local time (10pm UK time).

Dolphins were seen swimming nearby while work was under way to remove it from the water.

The astronauts’ journey back from the International Space Station took 17 hours.

Senior NASA administrator Joel Montalbano described the landing as “beautiful” – and said their 150 experiments and 900 hours of research will inform future moon missions.

“The crew’s doing great… eventually they’ll make their way back to Houston,” NASA manager Steve Stich said – telling reporters they’ll get some “well-deserved time off” with their families once debriefs are complete.

They were only meant to be on the ISS for eight days when they blasted off from Earth on 5 June last year.

They were testing out Boeing’s long-awaited Starliner – a vessel designed to rival SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which is currently used to ferry astronauts into space.

But by the time they docked at the ISS, the Starliner had suffered major problems – with five helium leaks, five dead manoeuvring thrusters and a propellant valve that failed to close completely.

It returned to Earth without them after it was decided Mr Wilmore, 62, and Ms Williams, 59, would be safer waiting in orbit.

During their long wait in space, the two US Navy veterans completed spacewalks, experiments and even helped sort out the plumbing onboard the ISS.

The astronauts repeatedly said they enjoyed the mission, with Ms Williams describing the space station as her “happy place”.

Swept up in NASA’s routine astronaut rotation schedule, Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams could not begin their return to Earth until their replacement crew arrived in order to maintain adequate US staffing levels.

The SpaceX vehicle that has brought them home arrived at the space station in September carrying NASA’s Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, along with two empty seats.

The four-person crew, formally part of NASA’s Crew-9 astronaut rotation mission, re-entered Earth’s atmosphere at about 5.45pm local time on Tuesday.

Using two sets of parachutes, the craft slowed its orbital speed of roughly 17,000 miles per hour to a soft 17 miles per hour at splashdown.

The astronauts will soon be flown to their crew quarters at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for several days of health checks, per routine for astronaut returns, before NASA flight surgeons allow them to go home to their families.

Living in space for months can affect the human body in multiple ways, from muscle atrophy to possible vision impairment.

Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams have logged 286 days in space on the mission – longer than the average six-month ISS mission length, but far short of US record holder Frank Rubio.

His continuous 371 days in space, ending in 2023, were the unexpected result of a coolant leak on a Russian spacecraft.

The mission has captured the attention of US President Donald Trump, who upon taking office in January called for a quicker return of Wilmore and Williams – and alleged without evidence that former President Joe Biden had “abandoned” them for political reasons.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a close adviser to Trump, echoed his call for an earlier return.

Crew Dragon is America’s only orbital-class crew spacecraft, which Boeing had hoped its Starliner would compete with before the mission with Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams threw its development future into uncertainty.

“We came prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short,” Mr Wilmore told reporters from space earlier this month, adding that he did not believe NASA’s decision to keep them on the ISS until Crew-10’s arrival had been affected by politics.

“That’s what your nation’s human spaceflight program’s all about,” he said.

“Planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that.”

US

James Comey: Trump says ex-FBI director’s seashells post ‘meant assassination’

Published

5 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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James Comey: Trump says ex-FBI director's seashells post 'meant assassination'

A former FBI director has been interviewed by the US Secret Service over a social media post that Republicans say was a call for violence against President Donald Trump.

James Comey, who led the FBI from 2013 until he was fired in 2017 by Mr Trump during his first term in office, shared a photo of seashells appearing to form the numbers “86 47”.

He captioned the Instagram post: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”

Some have interpreted the post as a threat, alleging that 86 47 means to violently remove Mr Trump from office, including by assassination.

What does ’86 47′ mean?

The number 86 can be used as a verb in the US. It commonly means “to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly”.

One recent meaning of the term is “to kill”, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, which said it had not adopted this meaning of 86 “due to its relative recency and sparseness of use”.

The number has previously been used in a political context by Matt Gaetz, who was President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general but withdrew from consideration following a series of sexual misconduct allegations.

Mr Gaetz wrote: “We’ve now 86’d…” and listed political opponents he had sparred with who ended up stepping down.

Meanwhile, 47 is supposedly representing Mr Trump, who is the 47th US president.

Mr Comey later removed the post, saying he thought the numbers “were a political message” and that he was not aware that the numeric arrangement could be associated with violence.

“I didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down,” Mr Comey said.

Mr Trump rejected the former FBI director’s explanation, telling Fox News: “He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant… that meant assassination.”

Donald Trump Jr accused Mr Comey of “casually calling for my dad to be murdered”.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed in a post on X that Mr Comey had been interviewed as part of “an ongoing investigation” but gave no indication of whether he might face further action.

The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich said Mr Comey had put out “what can clearly be interpreted as a hit on the sitting president of the United States”.

“This is deeply concerning to all of us and is being taken seriously,” Mr Budowich wrote on X.

Another White House official James Blair said the post was a “Clarion Call (…) to terrorists & hostile regimes to kill the President of the United States as he travels in the Middle East”.

Mr Trump fired Mr Comey in May 2017 for botching an investigation into 2016 democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the White House said at the time.

While Mr Comey was the director of the FBI, the agency opened an investigation into possible collusion between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Russia to help get Mr Trump elected.

US

Trump officials considerTV show where immigrants compete for US citizenship

Published

5 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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Trump officials considerTV show where immigrants compete for US citizenship

The Trump administration is considering a TV show whereby immigrants compete for the prize of US citizenship, the Department for Homeland Security has confirmed.

It would see contestants compete in tasks across different states and include trivia and “civic” challenges, according to the producer who pitched the idea.

Participants could battle it out to build a rocket at NASA headquarters, Rob Worsoff suggested.

Confirming the administration was considering the idea, Department for Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said: “We need to revive patriotism and civic duty in this country, and we’re happy to review out-of-the-box pitches. This pitch has not received approval or rejection by staff.”

It comes amid hardline immigration measures implemented by President Donald Trump on his return to office in January.

Since being back in the White House he has ordered “mass deportations” and used the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members to countries in Central and South America.

Mr Worsoff, who is a Canadian-American citizen, said his pitch was inspired by his own naturalisation process.

He cautioned that those who “lost” the gameshow would not be punished or deported but said the details of how it would work would be down to TV networks and federal officials.

The producer said the US was in need of “a national conversation about what it means to be American”.

He said the show, if accepted by a network, would “get to know” contestants and “their stories and their journeys”, while “celebrating them as humans”.

Meanwhile, the Department for Homeland Security has asked for 20,000 National Guard troops from various states to assist with its efforts rounding up illegal immigrants.

Currently, the federal Enforcement and Removals Operations agency only has around 7,700 staff – but the boost would help fulfil Mr Trump’s inauguration promises.

The Trump administration has already recruited 10,000 troops under state and federal orders to bolster the US-Mexico border.

Some have now been given the power to detain migrants within a newly militarised strip of land just adjacent to it.

US

‘Mass casualty event’ declared as tornadoes hit Kentucky and Missouri

Published

7 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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'Mass casualty event' declared as tornadoes hit Kentucky and Missouri

At least 21 people have died after tornadoes hit two US states, according to local officials.

Fourteen people have died in Kentucky, its governor Andy Beshear said, while seven have died in Missouri.

The weather system also saw tornadoes tear through Wisconsin, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power.

In the city of St Louis, five people were confirmed dead and more than 5,000 homes were damaged, mayor Cara Spencer said on Saturday.

The storm system originally hit Scott County, 130 miles south of St Louis, on Friday, killing two people, Sheriff Derick Wheetley said.

The devastation that ensued saw roofs torn off buildings, blown-out windows, toppled trees, and power lines.

St Louis mayor Cara Spencer said: “Our city is grieving tonight. The loss of life and the destruction is truly, truly horrendous.”

Dozens of people are believed to have been injured and in hospital, but the exact numbers in Missouri have not been confirmed.

Kentucky officials described the situation there as a “mass casualty event” after the weather system tore across Laurel County late on Friday.

Several people were taken to hospital, buildings were damaged, and a car flipped over on a busy highway, local officials reported.

Laurel County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Gilbert Acciardo said rescuers had “been on the ground all night looking for possible survivors”.

Kentucky governor Mr Beshear wrote on X that the number of dead in the state was likely to increase from 14 “as we receive more information”.

Further devastation expected in other states

The National Weather Service warned of further devastation hitting Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma on Saturday.

“Severe thunderstorms producing large to very large hail, damaging gusts, and a couple of tornadoes are expected across the southern Plains,” it said on its website.

The Midwest tornadoes were also expected to hit Illinois, eventually stretching to New Jersey and the Atlantic coast.