Washington DC(US):NASA astronauts Sunita 'Suni' Williams and Barry 'Butch' Wilmore will put a call to Earth and participate in a press conference aboard the International Space Station in low Earth orbit, the US space agency said. The space call is scheduled at 2:15 p.m. EDT (local time) on September 13 to the newsroom at NASA's Johnson Space Centre in Houston.
The pair had launched aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 5 for its first crewed flight, arriving at the space station on June 6. A decision was made to return Starliner to Earth without its crew and the spacecraft successfully returned on September 6 after more than three months in space. It made a safe landing at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.
Both astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore called down to flight controllers to thank teams for their support before the uncrewed Starliner spacecraft returned to Earth. "You guys it's time to bring Calypso home. We have your backs and you have got this. Bring her back to Earth," Sunita Williams said in the radio message referring to the spacecrafts nickname.
Both astronauts will remain on the international space station as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew and return home in February 2025 aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with two other crew members on NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 mission. Meanwhile, the crew of the Polaris Dawn the Elon Musk-led private charted spaceflight created history when they completed the first commercial spacewalk.
Donning newly-designed SpaceX extravehicular activity (EVA) suits, the crew began their approximately two-hour operation at 3:12 a.m. EDT while travelling at 17,500 miles per hour in an elliptical orbit of 190 x 700 km above the EarthThe spacewalk represents an important milestone of the Polaris Program, a developmental program designed to further the advancement of human spaceflight.
After opening the hatch, the Polaris Dawn crew became the first four astronauts to be exposed to the vacuum of space at the same time, the company said in a statement.
Over approximately twenty minutes, Commander Jared Isaacman and Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis egressed the vehicle and completed a series of tests designed to evaluate the suit's mobility, thermal systems and the Dragon mobility aid "Skywalker" before returning to the cabin and closing the hatch.
Mission Pilot Scott "Kidd" Poteet and Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Anna Menon supported Isaacman and Gillis throughout the entire operation monitoring vital support systems. Once the hatch was closed, Dragon was re-pressurized, and cabin oxygen and pressure levels were confirmed. Reflecting on his experience, mission commander and billionaire Isaacman, who financed the mission reflected on the experience: "SpaceX, back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world."
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson relayed good wishes to SpaceX and the Polaris Dawn crew in a statement on X. "Congratulations @PolarisProgram and @SpaceX on the first commercial spacewalk in history!" Nelson wrote. "Today's success represents a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry and @NASA's long-term goal to build a vibrant U.S. space economy." The Polaris Dawn mission targeted splashdown off the coast of Florida, however, SpaceX has not yet released details about the upcoming landing.
