And splashdown Crew-9 back on Earth. Nick, Alex, Butch, Sunny, on behalf of SpaceX, welcome home. A group of astronauts has finally touched down on Earth. After a fast and fiery re-entry through the Earth's atmosphere, their parachutes opened. They gently landed in the ocean off the coast of Florida. And we're greeted by dolphins. Out of the water and onto the recovery vessel. Wow, we got a cute little pod of dolphins. It wasn't just one or two.
For NASA astronauts Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore, this was the end of an unexpectedly long mission. They'd arrived at the International Space Station in June. Nice to be attached to the big city in the sky. We're looking forward to... They were only supposed to be there for a few days, but their spacecraft had technical issues.
And we've all had those before, but you really wouldn't want the tech to fail for a space flight. So they ended up hanging out in space till they could catch the next flight home. So what was life like for them out there and how will they adjust to being back on solid ground? This is What in the World from the BBC World Service. I'm Hannah Gelbart.
Let's find out more about this now from Rebecca Murrell, our science editor, who joins me here in the studio. Hello. Hello. So how come our astronauts ended up out in space for so long? Yes, well, Butch and Sonny, Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams arrived at the space station in June and they were only supposed to be there for eight days.
The problem was the spacecraft that they were going up to the International Space Station on, it was a new spacecraft. It was a test flight. It had been made by aerospace company Boeing. It suffered technical problems on the way up. Basically, helium leaks and its thrusters weren't working properly.
The astronauts got there okay, they were safe getting there, but NASA sort of took a look at the spacecraft afterwards and they didn't feel it was safe enough to bring the astronauts back home. So in early September... That spacecraft was flown back to Earth empty.
But that left NASA with a problem. They had these two astronauts on the space station and no dedicated spacecraft to get them home. So what they then did was to look at their sort of scheduled flights and they opted for the next scheduled SpaceX flight, rival company SpaceX. That flight actually...
arrived in late September and it came with two astronauts instead of four astronauts leaving two spare seats for Butch and Sonny to come home. The only catch was that that spacecraft and that mission was planned to last for about six years. months or so. So that's what extended Butch and Sonny's mission until now. That's how it ended up so long. So the Starliner, it came back without them and it did arrive safely.
they could potentially have come back in September. Yeah, that's right. So the Starliner spacecraft, it touched down in the desert of New Mexico. And subsequently, Boeing and NASA looked at the spacecraft and they did say, yes, actually, if Butch and Sonny... were inside of that capsule they'd have been okay but i think the issue is that nasa was grappling with you know obviously when you're kind of throwing in your astronauts you want them to be as safe as possible you don't want to expose them
to really risky situations. And I think there was just too much of a degree of uncertainty. And it was a big decision. They do think Starliner is going to fly. Again, they're looking at the problems it had, the helium leaks, the thruster problems. And they're thinking maybe it will do another flight towards the end of this year, possibly the beginning of next year. But, you know, space missions have a habit of moving. So who knows?
up in the International Space Station for nine months. I've read that they were stark stranded there. Is that what actually happened? Yeah, I mean, that is the sort of language that's been used with them and they have become known as the stranded astronauts. But it's quite interesting. this because stranded to me means you're somewhere and you can't get home you know stranded on a desert island for example but the way the space station works they're always spacecraft docked
So the spacecraft that arrive, they basically park there and then they stay for quite a few months before going home again. And the idea is that they would act as a lifeboat if ever there were an emergency on the space station where Butch and Sonny and the other astronauts needed to be evacuated.
there would always be enough space on the various spacecrafts to carry them home. So NASA have been really adamant, say, you know, they haven't been trapped, they haven't been stuck, they haven't been stranded or abandoned. They'd always had a way home. But I mean, one thing you can say for sure is...
that their mission was definitely massively extended. So could they have come home earlier if they wanted to? Well, there was the option of sending up a dedicated rescue mission. But the slight problem with that is that... It wouldn't have shaved that much time off of their eventual stay because you've got to select this spacecraft. You've got to have custom made seats, custom made suits sent up. You've got to find the slots to actually get the spacecraft up into space.
dock and to bring it back home and I spoke to some astronauts about this and they think that would have shaved maybe a few months off of the mission so maybe they'd have come back sort of at the end of last year rather than now but it's also incredibly expensive so you know
So I think what happened, NASA looked at the various scenarios and they thought it made most sense to sort of slot Butch and Sonny into their scheduled crew flight pattern. And that's what happened, even if the consequence of that was keeping them on.
Space Station for a lot longer. And they did eventually get to hitch a lift home. I want to find out a bit more about what life was like for them up on the International Space Station. What would their everyday look like? Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? Because I think for most people, if you went...
somewhere maybe on a work trip for eight days and it was extended for nine months I have some lovely work trips I wouldn't be that happy about it but when you look at the footage of Butch and Sonny I mean they look like they're loving every second up there I mean they are astronauts you know their entire career is based on being in space and actually astronauts don't get to spend that much of their career in space I mean I feel like they fully embraced their time up there they got involved
in the day-to-day life of the space station, which means they'd have been participating in loads and loads of experiments as well. You know, it's an orbiting laboratory, essentially. There's loads of science going on all the time. They conducted spacewalks. They did one together. and Sunny now has the record as a woman who spent the most hours outside of the space station. You know, they have said, we knew it was a test mission. We were prepared for a longer duration stay. And, you know...
We're having a good time up here. That's not to say that their family and friends might have had a bit of a harder time back at... home you know you're missing Christmas birthdays anniversaries events that you've planned for holidays you know all of those sorts of things so you know it wouldn't have come without a cost
Do you know what kind of missions they got involved in using that extra time out there? What kind of experiments and things they did? So one of the really interesting things during their spacewalk that they carried out together actually in January, they were actually swabbing the outside of this...
space station to see if there are any microbes growing there because they want to find out if microbes you know tiny organisms can actually grow outside the space station can they survive in that extremely hostile environment
or can they not? Because that will give you clues about where life can survive and how it gets on. So there are countless fascinating experiments that take place up there that they've been involved in. And apart from that, they would have had a lot of time to... reflect on their lives back at home and reflect on Earth as they went around it.
I think that's the thing that astronauts speak about a lot. It gives you an entirely different perspective on the Earth. I mean, one thing they've said in interviews is you don't really see any borders. You're seeing the planet as a whole. And I think it puts into perspective some...
of the conflict that's going on, for example. You know, they're gazing back at Earth, but they're gazing out to the vastness of space. The views are absolutely spectacular as well, those sunrises and sunsets because they're travelling around.
so much you get so many in a day you get to see the northern lights from space i mean i do urge you to go and have a look at any live pictures from the international space station looking down at earth because it does give you a sense of what they're saying that it's truly spectacular Are there any elements of their stay that would have been less comfortable?
I asked an astronaut, Garrett Reisman, about this, and he was quite funny. He said the thing you sort of miss while you're up there are certain types of food, for example. So he said, you know, I really, really love pizza, but you can't have pizza. pizza up there because all the crumbs get everywhere and they're floating about in the weightless environment. But he said the thing that he really, really didn't miss was using the lose.
In space, going to the toilet, it is quite an operation to go to the toilets in space. So he was quite happy to return to a nice flushing toilet down on Earth. So for Butch and Sonny, I'm not sure whether they're, you know, whether it's pizza in the toilets. I mean, it's a very different place. Has this happened before? Have people gone out for shorter periods of time and ended up staying for much longer?
Yeah, missions have been extended in the past. But I think what's interesting about Butch and Sonny's is it was going to be such a short mission. It was going to only be eight days and it's stretched to more than nine months. So I think some missions, you know, astronauts...
have been going up for six months and it's been extended to 12 months, for example. But they were geared up for that six-month stay in the first place. But I think it's all the order of magnitude by how much it's increased. They would have been really different. And you take stuff for eight days.
You know, you're not taking your belongings for... Not that you can take much up to the International Space Station, actually, but your mindset is very different. You think, oh, we're just going up, you know, a lot of... Hand luggage, right? Hand luggage, not a check-in. Exactly, exactly. But they would have had...
I mean, everyone asks about their underwear. Did they bring enough underwear up to the International Space Station? The answer was no. However, there were resupply missions. So, yeah, you don't have to worry about their underwear anymore. They're OK. Will their health be at all affected by the length of time that they spent in space?
Yes, space actually really takes a toll on the body in all sorts of ways. So being in microgravity in this sort of weightless environment, you know, you experience muscle wastage because you're not sort of...
not pushing against anything you're not walking around you're just floating about all the time you lose some bone density too the lack of gravity actually affects how your blood circulates around your body because you haven't kind of got gravity helping it along even your eyesight you know the
fluid builds up behind your eyes and that can affect your eyesight so while they're on the international space station astronauts spend a long period every day exercising i mean there's a great footage of them sort of running in microgravity on treadmills
of strapped down people have done marathons up there that that sort of thing but it's to try and counteract the the effects of this weightless environment so now they're back on earth they will be very thoroughly checked over by medics and frequently as well and they'll be put on a new sort of exercise regime to sort of build up their strength again. What about the process of re-entry? How dangerous is that? It's very risky actually. Well I think astronauts would call it thrilling.
To me, it sounds petrifying, actually, because you have a capsule that's reentering through the Earth's atmosphere. It experiences temperatures of 1,600 degrees Celsius. So the astronauts are protected by a heat shield. Then as it rapidly... slows down as it sort of hits the denser air of the Earth's atmosphere. The G-forces, this kind of, the astronauts would be squished back into their chairs feeling really heavy as their spacecraft slows down and then the parachutes open.
And that gives the astronauts another big jolt inside as it slows down even more. And then, of course, there's the gentle touchdown in the ocean. And then, you know, then the fresh air once the capsule is opened, you know, getting to sort of sense being...
back on our planet again must be incredible. It sounds like it would take a certain type of adrenaline junkie to be an astronaut. Well I don't know it's funny isn't it because they pick astronauts as being sort of really calm and steady people too. For a mere mortal like me I would not like to.
to do that but you're someone who's kind of calm and easygoing and good to get on with but someone who doesn't mind sort of doing something a bit risky at the same time you've got to have all of those qualities which makes them a really special bunch of people i think rebecca thank you so much no problem
Now Sunny and Butch are back home, how will their extended mission have affected them and how will they get used to life on Earth again? Here is Libby Jackson, a British space exploration expert. They will all be getting used to feeling gravity again. They've been floating. living in space, living and working on the International Space Station. During that time, bones get weaker, muscles get weaker as your body adapts to not having to fight that force of gravity because you are floating.
The blood returns back to a more normal distribution for us here on Earth. And it takes about a year for the body to recover those bones and muscles that have got weaker. But that's all entirely normal for people who have travelled in space. Sonny will be well looked after as any crew returning from the space station is.
That's it from us today. I hope you have enjoyed this episode. You've been listening to What in the World from the BBC World Service with me, Hannah Gelbart, and we'll be back with another episode soon. See you then.