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Astronauts Stuck In Space For Nine Months Greeted By Pod Of Dolphins After Splashing Back Down

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NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams

NASA


On Tuesday, two astronauts who were stranded on the International Space Station for close to a year safely arrived back on Earth. The duo landed in the water off of the coast of Florida and were greeted by an unexpected welcome party thanks to the pod of dolphins that made an appearance after they splashed down.

In 2024, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams headed up to the International Space Station for what was supposed to be an eight-day test mission that kicked off when they arrived at the start of June.

However, those plans were quickly derailed due to propulsion issues with the Boeing Starliner that had transported them to the satellite laboratory, and they subsequently found themselves stranded in the vessel orbiting 250 miles above the surface of the planet as NASA cobbled together a contingency plan.

The powers that be ultimately opted to free up two seats on the SpaceX shuttle that was slated to head up to the ISS last September, and while that was a promising development, it also meant Wilmore and Williams would have to spend another six months waiting to head home before joining the two astronauts who arrived for a mission of their own.

On Tuesday, the 286-day ordeal finally came to an end when the Crew-9 spacecraft departed the ISS to kick off the 17-hour journey back to Earth, which thankfully went off without a hitch.

The quartet landed approximately 50 miles off the coast of Florida around 6 P.M. on Tuesday where they were not only greeted by the recovery boat tasked with retrieving their capsule from the water but a pod of curious dolphins that were spotted in the immediate vicinity as the crew was preparing for their retrieval.

Wilmore and Williams were understandably in very good spirits after returning to dry land, and while they had to undergo physical screenings and will need a couple of days to adjust to the whole “gravity” thing, it appears they emerged from the situation pretty unscathed.