Two NASA astronauts whose planned eight-day mission unexpectedly stretched into more than nine months finally returned to Earth on Tuesday, ABC News reported. The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft splashed down off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida at 5:57 p.m. EDT.
The capsule carried NASA astronauts Sunita "Suni" Williams and Butch Wilmore – who had been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since June 2024 – along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Williams and Wilmore had originally launched to the ISS aboard Boeing's Starliner capsule for what was supposed to be approximately a one-week mission. However, technical issues with the Starliner prevented their planned return, extending their stay to more than nine months.
The Dragon capsule began its journey home early Tuesday, undocking autonomously from the ISS at 1:05 a.m. ET before beginning its 17-hour return journey to Earth. As the spacecraft separated from the space station, the departing crew exchanged farewell messages with those remaining aboard.
"On behalf of Crew-9, I'd like to say it was a privilege to call station home. To live and work and be a part of a mission and a team that spans the globe working together in cooperation for the benefit of humanity," Dragon commander Nick Hague told the ISS crew during the departure.
The Dragon spacecraft performed a series of carefully orchestrated maneuvers after leaving the station, positioning itself for the descent to Earth. The vehicle executed a deorbit burn using its Draco thrusters to place it on the correct trajectory for re-entry and landing at the designated splashdown site off Florida's coast.
During re-entry, the capsule encountered temperatures reaching 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit while the spacecraft's heat shield protected the astronauts inside. The extreme atmospheric drag helped slow the vehicle's descent in preparation for parachute deployment. The spacecraft deployed two drogue parachutes at approximately 18,000 feet while traveling at nearly 350 miles per hour. These initial chutes slowed the Dragon significantly before the four main parachutes deployed at about 6,000 feet, further reducing the spacecraft's velocity to a safe 15 miles per hour for splashdown.
After retrieval from the water and placement aboard the recovery vessel, the astronauts were finally able to breathe fresh air for the first time in over nine months. The successful recovery marks the end of an unexpectedly extended mission that demonstrated both the challenges of spaceflight and the flexibility of NASA's commercial crew program.
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), praised the successful mission during an exclusive interview on Fox News' "Hannity" on Tuesday. "Thanks to the excellent work of the SpaceX team working with NASA, the astronauts are now safely home. And so congratulations to the SpaceX NASA teams on excellent work," Musk said. He also offered a "huge note of appreciation" to President Donald Trump "for prioritizing and expediting the return.
