From fireball to splashdown: Sunita Williams' dramatic return to Earth

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Nasa astronauts Butch Wilmore and Indian- American Sunita Williams returned to Earth early on Wednesday, completing a mission that lasted more than nine months. Their return was marked by a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida. The astronauts traveled aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, which successfully re-entered Earth’s atmosphere after departing from the International Space Station (ISS) just hours earlier.

A tense re-entry

However, before their safe return, the final phase of their journey involved critical steps, maneuvers, and conditions that had to be managed carefully. It was a tense descent through intense heat and high-speed re-entry before their SpaceX Dragon capsule finally splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico. The Dragon spacecraft, docked at the ISS, was in a near-vacuum state before its departure.

A series of departure burns moved the capsule away from the station, setting it on course for Earth. But the most dangerous part was yet to come. As the capsule plunged toward Earth, friction from the atmosphere turned it into a fireball, raising the temperature of its outer surface to about 1,600 degrees Celsius. Inside, heat shields worked to protect the astronauts, as the capsule sped at nearly 28,800 kmph.

Protective shielding and parachute deployment

SpaceX’s Dragon capsule is designed with a heat-resistant casing made of Phenolic-Impregnated Carbon Ablator (Pica). This material was first developed by Nasa before being adopted by SpaceX to protect both cargo and crewed missions. As the spacecraft descended, the outer surface changed from its original white to a brownish colour, showing how the outer shell burned off while keeping the astronauts safe inside.

The spacecraft relied on a parachute system to slow down before splashdown. The system included six parachutes—two drogue parachutes deployed first to stabilize the capsule after it re-entered the atmosphere. Then, four main parachutes were released to further reduce speed as the spacecraft neared the ocean. The target speed at the time of splashdown was 16 miles per hour, achieved by the combined function of the parachutes.

As the Dragon capsule touched the ocean, recovery teams moved in to conduct safety checks before opening the hatch. They checked for any gas leaks or other potential hazards before extracting the astronauts. Within an hour, Wilmore and Williams were out of the capsule, waving and smiling for the cameras before being taken away in reclining stretchers for routine medical examinations.

Wilmore and Williams ended up spending 286 days in space — 278 days longer than anticipated when they launched. They circled Earth 4,576 times and traveled 121 million miles (195 million kilometers) by the time of splashdown.

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