Millions, nay crores of prayers from across the world,including India, were answered as India born NASA Astronaut Sunita Williams returned safely from International Space Station (SS) off Florida coast usingfour parachutes after being held up for nine months on Wednesday morning.
The splashdown took place at the precise time fixed by NASA bringing joy among the international space scientist. India too joined the celebrations with special festivities scenes in Gujarat, the birthplace of Sunita.
The SpaceX capsule carried NASA astronauts Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore and Nick Hague, and Russian astronaut Alexander Gorbunov, after undocking from the ISS.
Several States in India has been praying for Sunita’s safe landing as the splashdown off the Florida coast took place sucessfully after the Dragon was undocked from the ISS, marking a pivotal milestone in the Crew-9 astronautsā journey back to Earth.
After the two of the four prachutes opened up, it was celebrations as those watching live on TV channels welcomed with a large round of
applause.
Later, the other two opened up, ensuring their safelanding on earth after four stages of landing operations and after reducing the speed
of the craft during landing.
NASA in a live update said the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule named Freedom after orbiting around the planet on as part of its 17-hour journey,
finally culminated in a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida, around at 2157 GMT (Greenwich Mean time).
The two NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Ā Earth after spending more than nine months on the ISS on March 18, while another American astronaut Nick Hague and
a Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, were sent as replacements for Sunita Williams and Wilmore, aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon craft docked with the ISS on March 16.