What was supposed to be a brief visit to the International Space Station turned into an extended stay in orbit. On Tuesday, two NASA astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, finally returned to Earth after spending nine months in space—far longer than the eight days originally planned. Their long-awaited splashdown took place in the serene waters off the Florida Panhandle, bringing an end to a journey that had captivated the public since last summer.
Williams and Wilmore initially launched in June aboard Starliner, a Boeing spacecraft that was expected to provide NASA with an alternative to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon for transporting astronauts to and from the space station. However, Starliner experienced issues with its propulsion system, forcing NASA to send it back to Earth unmanned. Instead, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon was tasked with bringing them home.
The spacecraft separated from the space station just after 1 a.m. Eastern time before beginning its high-speed descent, traveling over 17,000 miles per hour before deploying its four large parachutes. The capsule safely touched down in the ocean just before 6 p.m., greeted by an unexpected audience—a pod of dolphins circling the site as recovery teams moved in.
Once the capsule was secured and lifted onto a recovery ship, the astronauts were carefully extracted. After nearly nine months in microgravity, their bodies were still adjusting to Earth’s gravitational pull, requiring assistance onto gurneys. “They all looked very healthy,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program. “They all looked like they were feeling about normal for the landing and recovery phase, where their body is trying to re-adapt.”
Williams and Wilmore were not alone in their return. They were accompanied by Nick Hague, commander of Crew-9, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The four astronauts were set to be flown back to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where they would remain under medical supervision before reuniting with their families. “They’ll join their families in the next day or so,” Stich confirmed.
@elonmusk (Elon Musk) https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1902253573200629878
Politics Surrounding Their Return
From left, NASA’s Butch Wilmore, Russia’s Aleksandr Gorbunov, NASA’s Nick Hague and NASA’s Suni Williams waiting to exit the SpaceX capsule after splashing down on Tuesday.
Credit…
SpaceX, via Associated Press
The extended mission not only highlighted SpaceX’s continued dominance in private spaceflight but also cast a shadow over Boeing’s struggles. However, the astronauts’ return was entangled in political controversy. Earlier this year, former President Donald Trump claimed that the Biden administration had left the astronauts stranded in space. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, also stated that he had offered to bring them home sooner, an offer he alleged was rejected by the Biden administration.
Bill Nelson, who served as NASA administrator under President Biden, refuted the claims, stating that NASA was never contacted about such an offer. He emphasized that the agency made all decisions based on operational needs and the safety of the space station. “On the basis that there was no contact with NASA, there was no political consideration from NASA’s point of view,” Nelson said.
Despite this, the White House quickly made a social media post following the astronauts’ return, declaring, “PROMISE MADE, PROMISE KEPT: President Trump pledged to rescue the astronauts stranded in space for nine months.” However, NASA had already planned since August for the Crew-9 mission to bring Williams and Wilmore back around this timeframe.
Musk later congratulated NASA and SpaceX teams for the safe return on his platform, X, and thanked Trump “for prioritizing this mission!” But the astronauts themselves pushed back on claims that they were abandoned. “It’s work. It’s fun. It’s been trying at times, no doubt,” Wilmore said in an interview from the space station before their return. “But ‘stranded’? No. ‘Stuck’? No. ‘Abandoned’? No.”
