Watch: Dolphins welcome Crew-9 astronauts as Sunita William’s spacecraft splashes down safely

A spectacular sight greeted SpaceX Dragon Freedom with astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore onboard as their capsule made a profitable splashdown off the coast of Florida. A pod of dolphins had been seen swimming across the spacecraft.
Video confirmed the second when the marine mammals gracefully encircled the floating capsule, as restoration groups labored to retrieve the crew. The sudden but breathtaking encounter added a singular contact to the astronauts’ return journey from house.
The SpaceX Crew-9 mission, a joint effort with Nasa, efficiently accomplished its mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), marking one other milestone in business spaceflight. The crew splashed down within the Atlantic Ocean, the place they had been met not solely by restoration groups but additionally by nature’s personal welcoming committee.

After an unplanned nine-month mission in house, Williams and Wilmore lastly returned to Earth on Wednesday, concluding a journey that captured international consideration.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying Butch Wilmore, Sunita Williams, fellow American Nick Hague, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov re-entered Earth’s environment, deploying parachutes for a easy splashdown off the Florida coast at 3.37 am (2157 GMT).

As the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft, named Freedom, bobbed on the waves—its exterior charred from enduring 3,500-degree Fahrenheit (2,000-degree Celsius) temperatures throughout re-entry—cheers erupted from floor groups.
Fast boats rushed to the capsule for security checks, quickly adopted by a restoration vessel to retrieve the astronauts, who will then be flown to Houston for a 45-day rehabilitation program.
Wilmore and Williams, each former US Navy pilots and skilled astronauts, initially traveled to the ISS in June 2023 on what was meant to be a brief take a look at flight aboard Boeing’s Starliner. However, propulsion points grounded the spacecraft, forcing it to return to Earth with out them.
Stranded aboard the ISS, the duo was reassigned to Nasa’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which arrived in September with a lowered crew of two as a substitute of the standard 4 to accommodate them. Their prolonged keep lasted 286 days—nicely past the standard six-month ISS rotation—however nonetheless ranks sixth among the many longest US house missions.
On Sunday, Crew-10 arrived on the station, clearing the way in which for Crew-9’s long-awaited return.