After being stranded in space for nine long months, Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore, and the SpaceX Crew 9 — Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov — are finally ready to splash down off the coasts of Florida later today. Wilmore and Williams were expected to be in space for only a week when they took off on Boeing’s first astronaut flight, but numerous issues with the Boeing Starliner left the duo stuck, and they will now return with the Crew-9 team from the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA will stream the homecoming live, and Kolkata’s Birla Industrial and Technological Museum is offering a front-row seat to view the grand event with a screening.
After months of planning, last week NASA and Space X launched the Crew-10 mission to bring home the stranded astronauts, and the four Crew-10 astronauts arrived at the ISS on Sunday, March 16 amid celebrations worldwide. As per latest updates, the Space X capsule has undocked from ISS and the astronauts are long flight back to earth.
As they make their return home aboard the SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft, you can watch it live along with other space enthusiasts from 1.45am onwards on March 19 at the BITM, a unit of National Council of Science Museums, Ministry of Culture, on Gurusaday Road in Ballygunge. BITM will have a big screen ready for the live screening with adequate seating arrangements on their lawns.
While the museum will remain closed at night, you can head over to BITM and watch this monumental return, free of charge. The seats will be available on a first come first service basis.
The crew, who were in space from June 2024 at the International Space Station, spent 900 hours of research and conducted 150 unique scientific experiments and technology demonstrations during their stay aboard the orbiting laboratory. Before you witness their homecoming, you can read about their mission here.
What: Live screening of Sunita Williams’ and the Crew-9’s return to Earth
Where: Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, Gurusaday Road, Kolkata
When: March 19, 2025, from 1:45 am
Fee: Free; seating on first-come-first-serve basis