Sunita Williams And Crew-9 Press Conference Confirmed On Mar. 31: Here’s How You Can Ask Questions

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will attend a press conference on Mar. 31 to share their experience of the prolonged stay on the International Space Station (ISS). The two astronauts, part of the SpaceX Crew 9 mission, returned to Earth on Mar. 18 after more than 9 months of stay in space.

The conference will begin at 2:30 pm EDT  (11:30 pm IST) at Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA said in an official press release.

Williams and Wilmore flew to the ISS in June last year for their week-long mission. However, technical difficulties with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft forced them to stay aboard the ISS for an extended duration. Following a couple of unsuccessful executions of their return mission, NASA was finally able to bring them back on Mar. 18. Astronauts Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov also returned as part of Crew 9.

Hague will be joining the press conference as well. NASA said that Russia’s Gorbunov will not be able to attend the event due to his travel schedule. These two astronauts flew later and spent 171 days in space.

According to the US space agency, the live coverage of Sunita Williams and Crew-9 press conference can be watched through multiple social media handles of NASA. It will also be available on NASA+, the dedicated broadcast platform on NASA website.

During the conference, Williams and Wilmore will be sharing how they spent 286 days in space. They will discuss the activities they took part in and the studies that were conducted under their watch. Throughout their stay, the two astronauts completed 4,576 orbits around Earth.

During their stay, they conducted 150 experiments. These experiments are expected to help space agencies understand space better for future missions. A key focus will also be the impact on Williams and Wilmore’s health. This is expected to influence how astronauts are stationed on the ISS for longer durations, and whether NASA will adopt any different approach for such unexpected circumstances.

NASA said that people interested in asking specific questions to the astronauts can use the hashtag ‘AskNASA’ on its social media platforms. Select questions will be picked up by the agency and discussed during the conference.