Sunita Williams had a smile on her face while coming out of the Dragon capsule.
Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have returned to Earth along with two other a
astronauts aboard SpaceX's Dragon capsule.
These two astronauts, who went to the International Space Station for just eight days in June last year, have been able to return after nine months.
Boeing's Starline spacecraft that was supposed to bring
them back to Earth malfunctioned, so they had to wait so long.
They finally landed the Dragon capsule of Elon Musk's
company SpaceX safely on the coast of Florida.
After it fell into the sea, a group of curious dolphins
circled around the capsule.
It took a long 17 hours for the astronauts to reach Earth
from the space station. Read how this journey was and what happened after the
capsule splashed down?
Open parachute and then splashdown...
The journey from the International Space Station (ISS) to
Earth took approximately 17 hours.
The Dragon capsule was traveling at a speed of 17,000 miles
per hour when it entered Earth's atmosphere, which was rapidly slowed down over
a period of minutes.
Earlier on Tuesday, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore along
with two other astronauts, Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov,
bid farewell to the rest of the astronauts.
Nick Hague and Gorbunov arrived at the ISS in September last
year on a six-month space mission aboard SpaceX's Dragon capsule.
When the capsule entered the Earth's atmosphere, there was a
communication blackout, which was restored at around 3:20 am.
After entering the atmosphere, the temperature of the
spacecraft's plasma shield reached 1927 degrees Celsius, but the heat shield
proved helpful in protecting the astronauts on board from such intense heat.
At around 3:21 am the spacecraft became autonomous, meaning
the astronauts were not controlling it. During this time they were able to see
all the activities on the touch screen in front of them.
At around 3:24, the first Dragon capsule's two parachutes
opened, which slowed down its speed further. During this, there was a strong
shock and the capsule's speed slowed down further.
