Four NASA astronauts who recently returned to Earth from their mission aboard the International Space Station will attend a welcoming ceremony at NASA's Space Center in Texas this week.
Astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore and Don Pettit will arrive in Houston on Thursday to attend a return to Earth ceremony and share highlights of their recent space mission, NASA officials said.
Williams and Wilmore returned after nine months in the orbiting laboratory.
Hague, Wilmore, Williams and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov landed back on Earth on March 18 when their craft splashed down successfully off the west coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico after months on the ISS, where humans have been working and living continuously for about 25 years.
Petty, who launched Sept. 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 April 19 — his 70th birthday — to Kazakhstan in southwestern Russia after 590 days in orbit.
Williams and Wilmore traveled more than 121 million miles during their mission and spent 286 days in space, orbiting the Earth 4,576 times and logging hundreds of additional hours in outer space.
Hague and Gorbunov, who flew more than 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, where space travelers will recognize “key mission contributors” at an awards ceremony that follows the presentation.
Sourse: www.upi.com
