Former ISRO Chief Dr G Madhavan Nair on Wednesday said that returning of National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronaut Sunita Williams to Earth after being stranded at the International Space Station for nine months is a "proud moment" for the Space community.
ISRO congratulated astronaut Sunita Williams on her safe return after an extended mission aboard the ISS. The space agency acknowledged her achievement, praised NASA, SpaceX, and the USA's commitment to space exploration, and invited Williams to contribute to India's space efforts.
The astronauts disembarked the capsule on stretchers, as is customary, as per CNN. This is a common precaution SpaceX always takes when astronauts return from months-long journeys to space.
A CORE -- a "crew operations resource engineer" -- at SpaceX's headquarters in California confirmed the target touchdown time remains on track for 5:57 pm (ET), as per CNN.
Williams and Wilmore are scheduled to travel back to Earth alongside Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Wilmore and Williams have been stranded on the ISS for nine months after reaching there in June last year. They were supposed to stay there for about a week. The astronauts were transported from Earth to the ISS aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft.
SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov docked with International Space Station.
A crew of four will head to the ISS onboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for a six-month stay. The mission is being launched to bring back Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita Williams, Fox News report.