Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore left the ISS this morning: A parable of time and eternity
The Daily Article
The Denison Forum
4.9 • 576 Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
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Summary
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Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are returning to Earth after nine months stranded on the International Space Station. A four-person crew entered the ISS early Sunday morning as part of a mission to relieve Williams and Wilmore. Their SpaceX spacecraft undocked from the ISS at 1:05 a.m. ET this morning, transporting Wilmore and Williams alongside two other astronauts. Their journey back to Earth will take seventeen hours, with splashdown planned for 5:57 p.m. ET. Today, we consider this remarkable story as a parable.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Tuesday, March the 18th, 2025. Welcome to the Denison Forum's Daily Article podcast, |
| 0:09.1 | written today by our co-founder and CEO, Dr. Jim Denison, and narrated by Chris Elkins. |
| 0:17.9 | Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore will be able to sleep in their own beds tonight, or at least in beds on this planet. |
| 0:26.2 | That's more than the two astronauts have been able to say in the last nine months, |
| 0:30.4 | since their return after a supposed 10-day stay aboard the International Space Station was delayed due to thruster problems on the Boeing Starliner |
| 0:39.6 | spacecraft that was intended to bring them home. A four-person crew entered the ISS early Sunday morning |
| 0:46.2 | as part of a mission to relieve Williams and Wilmore. The crew was greeted with smiles and hugs by |
| 0:51.7 | the seven astronauts aboard the space station, none more than the two stranded Americans. |
| 0:57.0 | Their SpaceX spacecraft, undocked from the International Space Station at 105 a.m. Eastern Time this morning, |
| 1:05.0 | transporting Wilmore and Williams alongside two other astronauts. |
| 1:10.0 | Their journey back to Earth will take 17 hours, |
| 1:13.5 | with splashdown planned for 5.57 p.m. Eastern Time. Let's consider this remarkable story as a |
| 1:21.0 | parable. The ISS has been continually occupied since November 2000. In its quarter-century operation, it has hosted more than |
| 1:29.3 | 280 astronauts, cosmonauts, and space flight participants from over 20 countries. |
| 1:35.3 | However, none of them were born there. Each came from Earth with the intention of returning |
| 1:40.3 | when their operational duty was completed. As a result, no one would need to encourage |
| 1:45.4 | them to board the spacecraft that would transport them home. However peril of such a journey |
| 1:50.3 | might seem, it is a temporary means to a much more permanent end. However, imagine that the space |
| 1:57.3 | station was populated only with people who were born there. None had come from Earth |
| 2:02.6 | to join them. How hard would it be then to convince them to board a spacecraft to leave the only |
| 2:08.7 | home they had known for one whose existence they must take on faith? In the meantime, how challenging |
| 2:15.2 | might it be to persuade them to live for that day and destination, |
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