Around 13.5 million American households watched broadcast and cable network coverage of the return of four astronauts who were stranded on the International Space Station for nine months.
The return of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to Earth on Tuesday attracted 7.7 million TV households to cable news channels, with another 5.5 million watching special coverage of the return on the main three broadcast networks — ABC, CBS and NBC.
The Fox News Channel had the largest audience during the 6 p.m. Eastern Time hour, drawing 5.3 million viewers with its coverage of the astronauts’ return. CNN and MSNBC were tied for second place with around 1.2 million viewers each. Data for NewsNation was not immediately available.
CBS led the broadcast networks with 2.9 million viewers tuning in during the 6 p.m hour, followed by ABC with 1.8 million viewers and NBC at 1.1 million viewers.
Williams and Wilmore took off for the International Space Station last June, part of SpaceX’s ninth commercial flight in partnership with NASA. The crew departed on board a Starliner crew capsule developed by Boeing; the capsule was beset with problems during the mission, to the point that NASA determined the capsule would return to Earth without the two astronauts.
The mission was supposed to last only a week, but the return of the two astronauts was delayed to February as NASA scrambled with SpaceX to determine the best way forward to bring them home. Issues with the SpaceX return capsule further delayed the return of the astronauts to this month. Astronauts Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov were eventually sent to retrieve Williams and Wilmore and bring them home.
“We are thrilled to have Suni, Butch, Nick, and Aleksandr home after their months-long mission conducting vital science, technology demonstrations, and maintenance aboard the International Space Station,” Janet Petro, the acting Administrator at NASA, said in a statement.
Petro credited President Donald Trump with directing NASA and SpaceX to work diligently on efforts to work out the best schedule to return the two astronauts to Earth. Originally, some projections had them arriving as late as April.
“This international crew and our teams on the ground embraced the Trump Administration’s challenge of an updated, and somewhat unique, mission plan, to bring our crew home,” Petro said. “Through preparation, ingenuity, and dedication, we achieve great things together for the benefit of humanity, pushing the boundaries of what is possible from low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars.”
