After 9 months in space, Sunita Williams to return to Earth on March 18

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NASA has confirmed that astronaut Sunita Williams and her crew will return to Earth on Wednesday, 3:30 am IST.

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00:00After spending 9 months in space, Sunita William's Earth touchdown will finally take place on

00:10Wednesday, 3.30am IST.

00:13Crew 10 to replace crew 9 astronauts, NASA confirms Sunita William's Earth return date.

00:18Shares splashdown time, NASA on Sunday confirmed that the duo will return to Earth on Tuesday,

00:23March 18 evening GMT, which is 3.30am IST.

00:28NASA and SpaceX met on Sunday to assess weather and splashdown conditions off the Florida's

00:32coast for the return of the agency's crew 9 mission from the International Space Station.

00:38Mission managers are targeting an earlier crew 9 return opportunity based on favorable

00:42conditions forecasted for the evening.

00:46So this is after 9 months that Sunita Williams spent in space.

00:50She will be touching down on Earth on Wednesday, 3.30am IST.

00:57Our

01:22correspondent Shibu Kumar Tripathi is joining me on the phone line with more details.

01:25Yes Shibu, we now have a definitive timeline for when Sunita Williams will be landing on

01:30Earth.

01:31Speak to us a little bit about the rehabilitation of Sunita Williams and the other astronauts

01:35who will be landing back on Earth after spending 9 months in space.

01:39What that will be like?

01:40Good morning Chetna.

01:41So NASA has revealed the timeline for the return of astronaut Sunita Williams and the

01:48other crew 9 astronauts.

01:51So on March 19, sometime around 3.20 to 3.30am, they will be splashdowning into the coast

01:58of Florida.

01:59However, this is a tentative timeline.

02:01This will depend on the weather conditions in the region, the orbital trajectory of this

02:05international spacecraft, which will be finally calculated and SpaceX will decide the final

02:11splashdown location and the final time.

02:13As far as we talk about the rehabilitation, we need to know that they have been in space

02:17for about 9 months now, which is a huge, long duration space travel, which has its

02:23own kind of effects and toll on the body.

02:26First of all, they will be going into a quarantine zone where they will be kept alone, not alone

02:34actually, but they will be kept in a quarantine safe zone where they will be given time to

02:38recuperate.

02:39Rehabilitation will be a day-to-day process, they will have to basically start from scratch

02:46because they haven't felt the effect of gravity in over 9 months.

02:50And gravity will be a punishing affair, splashdown.

02:53So this will take some time, this will take a few weeks to a few months to basically,

02:59for the two astronauts to finally get back on.

03:02Right, thanks Shibu for bringing us those details on that story.

03:05Let's also listen in to what astronaut Sunita Williams had to say while in space.

03:10We're coming back before long, so don't make all those plans without me.

03:14We'll be back before too long.

03:15I can tell you at the outset, we have, all of us have the utmost respect for Mr. Musk

03:21and obviously respect and admiration for our President of the United States, Donald Trump.

03:26We appreciate them, we appreciate all that they do for us, for human space flight, for

03:30our nation.

03:32And we're thankful that they're in the positions they're in.

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