Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams returned to Earth after being stranded in space for nine months.
The two departed the International Space Station early on Tuesday morning, using a SpaceX capsule that had docked on Sunday. The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule hit the water off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, just before 6 p.m.
NASA said the landing went “smoothly.” The commander of the crew said he was “grinning ear to ear.”
After hitting the water, a small patrol vessel went out to greet the crew in the bobbing capsule. A rig will then haul the vessel out of the water.
Dolphins greeted the capsule as it bobbed in the water, with a pod of them swimming around the spacecraft.
Wilmore and Williams went to the space station last summer for a planned eight-day mission, but technical difficulties with the Boeing Starliner led NASA to determine a return flight would be too risky. Though the astronauts were never in any immediate danger and waved off suggestions they were stranded, their plight earned international attention.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE STRANDED NASA ASTRONAUTS RETURNING TO EARTH
President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk weighed in on the matter, alleging a political scheme from the Biden administration was the reason for the astronauts being stranded.
NASA agreed to waive an overlap period in which the replacement crew and outgoing astronauts are typically at the station together to get the astronauts back to Earth as soon as possible.
