STRANDED astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams finally made a triumphant splash down on Earth – after being stuck in space for a gruelling nine months.
The pair returned home in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft alongside two rescue mission astronauts on Tuesday night when the capsule landed spectacularly off the Florida coast.
The capsule, named Freedom, dramatically splashed down in the sea near Tallahassee, Florida – as dolphins majestically swam around the floating spacecraft.
It ended an unexpectedly long mission which started in June 2024 and lasted 286 days.
The gleeful crew were assisted out of the capsule one-by-one for the first time in nearly a year, helped by staff who put them straight into wheelchairs.
The happy heroes smiled and waved at photographers as they were wheeled away from their unthinkable nine-month ordeal.
Tense footage also showed the capsule flying down at incredibly high speeds before parachutes were suddenly deployed.
The spaceship reached a temperature of nearly 2,000C when it re-entered the atmosphere.
As the capsule flew down, it dramatically slowed down from more than 17,000mph to completely stationary within just minutes.
When it landed, the astronauts were greeted from the control centre: “Nick, Alec, Butch, Suni – on behalf of SpaceX, welcome home.”
The centre added: “I see a capsule full of grins, ear to ear.”
Nasa spokesperson Jaden Jennings said that the “splashdown was spectacular”, and that they had “optimal conditions” for the returning mission to Earth.
She added: “A new core memory was made today.”
The astronauts were not controlling or steering the capsule, as it was flying autonomously and only being monitored by the crew.
After the successful landing, recovery teams arrived in “fast boats” to complete safety checks and retrieve the parachutes.
A SpaceX recovery vessel then made its way to the craft, picked it up and opened the spaceship to allow the crew out for their first breath of fresh air.
In a tense moment just before the landing, the capsule lost all communications with the command center for several minutes.
This phenomenon is usual, as during the capsule’s re-entry into the atmosphere plasma builds up around the shield and it gets extremely hot.
Communications returned several minutes later as usual once the capsule had entered the atmosphere.
Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Sunni” Williams had initially been sent on a days-long mission to test out Boeing‘s Starliner on its first crewed flight.
But after the spaceship developed propulsion problems, they stayed in space at the International Space Station whilst their craft flew back empty.
What is the ISS?
Here's what you need to know about the International Space Station (ISS).
- The International Space Station is a large spacecraft that orbits Earth and houses astronauts who go up there to complete scientific missions
- Many countries worked together to build it and they work together to use it
- It is made up of many pieces, which astronauts had to send up individually on rockets and put together from 1998 to 2000
- Ever since the year 2000, people have lived on the ISS
- Nasa uses the station to learn about living and working in space
- It is approximately 250 miles above Earth and orbits around the planet just like a satellite
- Living inside the ISS is said to be like living inside a big house with five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a gym, lots of science labs and a big bay window for viewing Earth
The two accompanying rescue members, American Nick Hague and Russian Aleksandr Gorbunov, joined them months after in September before they all came back together on Tuesday.
Wilmore and Williams’ 286-day stay exceeds the usual six-month ISS rotation but ranks only sixth among US records for single-mission duration.
Frank Rubio holds the top spot at 371 days in 2023, while the world record remains with Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent a whopping 437 consecutive days aboard the Mir station.
Nasa has rejected the wording “stranded”, emphasizing that the pair could have been evacuated in an emergency if necessary.
The situation attracted Elon Musk when in an interview with Fox News, he claimed the astronauts were left in space for political reasons.
Musk said on X that SpaceX could have brought Butch and Suni back sooner, and that the Biden Administration turned his offer down.
But Nasa officials hit back saying their decisions were based on scheduling for flights as well as the International Space Station’s needs.
This was astronaut Aleksandr Gorbunov’s first trip to space, while U.S. man Nick Hague previously spent 203 days on the space station in 2019.
The group of four, known as Crew 9, landed successfully after a tense splash down mission and will soon start a rehabilitation programme in order to re-adjust back to life on Earth.
The lack of gravity that they have endured for months will have affected their bone density, blood volume and muscles.
More to follow… For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos.
Like us on Facebook at TheSunUS and follow us on X at @TheUSSun