The Longest Week In Space

So far, it has been 285 days. Or forty weeks and five days. Or longer than in takes for a baby to be born,  nine months and twelve days.

 

Just putting it in perspective.

It took about twenty-nine hours, from liftoff to docking, for SpaceX Dragon Crew Ten to arrive at the ISS. This was the first part of the mission, where Bruce Wilmore and Suni Williams would FINALLY be able to go home after spending 285 days, to date, in space on a mission which was supposed to last a week.

At 0200 EDT, Wilmore opened the hatch between the vessels to welcome the replacement crew.

The Crew-10 astronauts will relieve four folks who have been living on the ISS for a while now, NASA's Nick Hague, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore and Roscosmos' Aleksandr Gorbunov.

 

Hague and Gorbunov have been there since September, while Wilmore and Williams have been living there since Starliner was determined to be a failure.

It is expected that the return flight back to Florida will occur at 0400 EDT on Wednesday, March 19 and splash down off the Florida coast several hours later.

To paraphrase Barry McGuire from his 1965 hit:

Ah, you may leave here for ten months in space

But when you return, it's the same old place.

By the time they return, it will be over 290 days. And you can be sure that at least for Butch and Suni, that is enough for a lifetime. But they will have much to share with family and friends.

Godspeed on your journey back home!