Mt. Juliet grad Butch Wilmore returns to Earth

Astronaut and Mt. Juliet High School graduate Barry "Butch" Wilmore returned to Earth from space Wednesday to complete his crew's voyage to the International Space Station that began more than five months ago.

Wilmore and his crew were scheduled to leave the space station late Wednesday afternoon Central time, and they landed in Kazakhstan after 9 p.m. He returned with cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

The crew left for the space station Sept. 25 to perform research and maintenance. The International Space Station is generally manned by six astronauts and cosmonauts who rotate in crews of three.

The mission included three spacewalks at the space station to help prepare for the arrival of U.S. commercial spacecraft that will allow for crews to dock there in the future.

Wilmore also was the first in space to use a 3-D printer sent to the station to print actual tools NASA hopes can be used to save space on future missions. Wilmore printed a ratchet wrench with the 3-D printer.

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"What the astronauts are doing is critical to space exploration," Ramsey said. "It's critical science research for future space exploration to Mars and applications that benefit Earth."

Wilmore lived as a youth in the Una area and then in Mt. Juliet. He graduated from Mt. Juliet High in 1981 and went to Tennessee Tech where he played football.

Wilmore will have six months before being assigned another technical position. That time will be used for recovery and appearances, said Megan Sumner of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where Wilmore is based.

Reach Andy Humbles at 615-726-5939 and on Twitter @AndyHumbles.