NASA astronauts Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore will make a call to Earth and take part in a press conference from the International Space Station, as announced by the US space agency. The communication is set for 2:15 p.m. EDT on September 13 and will be directed to NASA’s Johnson Space Center newsroom in Houston.
The astronauts had launched on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on June 5 for its inaugural crewed mission, arriving at the space station the following day. A decision was later made to return the Starliner to Earth uncrewed, and it successfully landed on September 6 at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico after spending over three months in orbit.
Williams and Wilmore had previously contacted flight controllers to express their gratitude for the support provided before Starliner’s return. Williams’ radio message encouraged the team to bring the spacecraft back, referring to it by its nickname, “Calypso.”
The astronauts will stay aboard the International Space Station as part of the Expedition 71/72 team and are scheduled to return to Earth in February 2025 aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission.
In other news, the Polaris Dawn mission, led by Elon Musk’s private spaceflight company, achieved a historic milestone with the first commercial spacewalk. Wearing new SpaceX extravehicular activity (EVA) suits, the crew undertook a two-hour spacewalk starting at 3:12 a.m. EDT while orbiting Earth at 17,500 miles per hour in an elliptical trajectory of 190 x 700 km.
This spacewalk marked a significant development for the Polaris Program, which aims to advance human spaceflight. The crew, consisting of Commander Jared Isaacman, Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis, Mission Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, and Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Anna Menon, conducted various tests to assess the suit’s functionality and the Dragon mobility aid “Skywalker.”
Upon completion, the crew re-entered the spacecraft, closed the hatch, and verified the cabin’s oxygen and pressure levels. Isaacman, who funded the mission, reflected on the experience, noting how Earth appeared as a “perfect world” from space.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX and the Polaris Dawn crew via X, highlighting the significance of this commercial spacewalk for the space industry and NASA’s vision of a thriving U.S. space economy.
