A spectacular sight greeted SpaceX Dragon Freedom with astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore onboard as their capsule made a successful splashdown off the coast of Florida. A pod of dolphins were seen swimming around the spacecraft.
Video showed the moment when the marine mammals gracefully encircled the floating capsule, as recovery teams worked to retrieve the crew. The unexpected yet breathtaking encounter added a unique touch to the astronauts’ return journey from space.
The SpaceX Crew-9 mission, a joint effort with Nasa, successfully completed its mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), marking another milestone in commercial spaceflight. The crew splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, where they were met not only by recovery teams but also by nature’s own welcoming committee.
After an unplanned nine-month mission in space, Williams and Wilmore finally returned to Earth on Wednesday, concluding a journey that captured global attention.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying Butch Wilmore, Sunita Williams, fellow American Nick Hague, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, deploying parachutes for a smooth 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 during re-entry—cheers erupted from ground teams.
Fast boats rushed to the capsule for safety checks, soon followed by a recovery vessel to retrieve the astronauts, who will then be flown to Houston for a 45-day rehabilitation program.
Wilmore and Williams, both former US Navy pilots and experienced astronauts, originally traveled to the ISS in June 2023 on what was meant to be a short test flight aboard Boeing’s Starliner. However, propulsion issues grounded the spacecraft, forcing it to return to Earth without them.
Stranded aboard the ISS, the duo was reassigned to Nasa’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which arrived in September with a reduced team of two instead of the usual four to accommodate them. Their extended stay lasted 286 days—well beyond the usual six-month ISS rotation—but still ranks sixth among the longest US space missions.
On Sunday, Crew-10 arrived at the station, clearing the way for Crew-9’s long-awaited return.
