{"id":24386,"date":"2025-03-19T15:07:40","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T15:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=24386"},"modified":"2025-03-19T15:07:40","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T15:07:40","slug":"reason-why-stranded-nasa-astronauts-landed-in-the-ocean-instead-of-solid-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=24386","title":{"rendered":"Reason why \u2018stranded\u2019 NASA astronauts landed in the ocean instead of solid ground"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

There’s an interesting reason as to why the stuck NASA astronauts landed in the ocean instead of solid ground earlier this week on Tuesday (18 March).<\/p>\n

Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore docked their Boeing Starliner onto the International Space Station (ISS) back in June for what was supposed to be an eight-day mission, unaware that they’d be trapped in the ship for a further nine months\u00a0following a bout of technical faults<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite mass concern online,\u00a0Williams and Wilmore<\/a>\u00a0assured the public they weren’t abandoned on the ISS following\u00a0claims made by President Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0and SpaceX CEO\u00a0Elon Musk<\/a>\u00a0that their return was delayed by the\u00a0Joe Biden<\/a>\u00a0administration for\u00a0political<\/a>\u00a0reasons.<\/p>\n

How did they land?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The\u00a0NASA<\/a>\u00a0astronauts’ SpaceX capsule parachuted into the\u00a0Gulf of Mexico<\/a>, just hours after leaving the ISS with splashdown occurring off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida,\u00a0which eventually brought their unplanned odyssey to an end<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wilmore and Williams ended up spending a staggering 286 days in\u00a0space<\/a>, which is a whole 278 days longer than anticipated when they launched.<\/p>\n

They circled Earth 4,576 times and travelled 121 million miles by the time of splashdown.<\/p>\n

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\"The\"The<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The NASA astronauts returned to Earth on Tuesday (18 March) after spending 286 days in space (Keegan Barber\/NASA via Getty Images)<\/cite><\/div>\n

What is a splashdown landing?<\/h2>\n

The splashdown method is pretty much what it says on the tin – a technique where a spacecraft lands in the ocean instead of on solid ground.<\/p>\n

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\"Sunita\"Sunita<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams (NASA \/ Handout \/ Getty Images)<\/cite><\/div>\n

Why was a splashdown used for the return?<\/h2>\n

There are a number of reasons as to why the splashdown method is used with one being that it simply makes for a gentler landing.<\/p>\n

This is because the body of water acts as somewhat of a natural cushion which, in turn, reduces the impact force on astronauts compared to a hard ground landing.<\/p>\n

Secondly, it means the aircraft design can be simpler as such a landing eliminates the need for complex landing gear like wheels or airbags which makes the spacecraft lighter and safer.<\/p>\n

And, thirdly, a splashdown landing brings with it a lower risk of damage as spacecrafts can experience some very intense heat and speed during re-entry to Earth and landing in water can help minimise structural stress on the vessel.<\/p>\n

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\"The\"The<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The crew were carried away in stretchers immediately after returning to Earth (Anadolu \/ Contributor \/ Getty Images)<\/cite><\/div>\n

What’s next for Wilmore and Williams?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ahead of readjusting to their normal every day lives on Earth, it’s expected that the astronauts will have to go through some protocol, as well as\u00a0health checks<\/a>, after so long in space.<\/p>\n

A NASA spokesperson has previously said: “All NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station undergo routine\u00a0medical evaluations<\/a>, have dedicated flight surgeons monitoring them, and are in good health.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  There’s an interesting reason as to why the stuck NASA astronauts landed in the ocean instead of solid ground earlier this week on Tuesday (18 March). Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24388,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24386\/revisions\/24388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}