May 20 (UPI) — Four NASA astronauts who recently returned to Earth from a mission aboard the International Space Station will take part this week in a welcome-home ceremony at NASA’s space center in Texas.
On Thursday, NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore and Don Pettit will be in Houston to participate in ceremonies to welcome them back to Earth and will share highlights from their recent space mission, according to NASA officials.
Williams and Wilmore arrived after being stranded on the orbital laboratory for nine months.
Hague, Wilmore, Williams and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov returned to Earth on March 18 when their craft splashed safely off the western coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico after they spent months on the ISS, where people have continuously worked and lived for about 25 years now.
Petit, who launched on September 11 aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft with two Russian cosmonauts, spent seven months in space on a research mission as a flight engineer and returned on April 19 — his 70th birthday — in Kazakhstan to Russia’s southwest after he spent 590 days in orbit.
Williams and Wilmore traveled more than 121 million miles during their mission and spent 286 days in space with 4,576 completed orbits around Earth and logged hundreds of extra hours in space.
Hague and Gorbunov, who traveled over 72 million miles during their mission, spent 171 days in orbit.
The free, public event at Space Center Houston will begin at 6 p.m. local time, during which the space travelers will recognize “key mission contributors” during an award ceremony following the presentation.
