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Sunita Williams' comeback: The hardest mission is to learn to walk again

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On the morning of March 19, 2025 (IST), the SpaceX crew capsule carrying NASA astronauts Sunita Williams, Barry Wilmore, Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov landed near Florida. Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore returned to Earth after nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), while they were originally expected to spend eight days testing Boeing's Starliner crew capsule.

If the story of “Stranded” captures the essence of the Starliner failure, it misses the inevitable contingencies at the heart of human space flight. Ms Williams herself has tried to reduce the use of such words.