NASA astronaut and Crew-9 commander Nick Hague was the first to emerge from the Dragon capsule with the help of ground crew, almost an hour after the Dragon capsule splashed down off the Florida coast. Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov slid down a ramp coming out of the capsule next, followed by Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore.
Following recovery and cooldown procedures, the astronauts began emerging from the capsule, bogged down by gravity after a nine-month stay in space.
They left from space on Sunday after being relieved by Crew-10 and splashed down 17 hours after departure from the International Space Station. The astronauts will be taken to Houston in a helicopter for a 45-day rehabilitation programme.
Watch: Sunita Williams has exited the hatch and is now being sent for further medical checkups and other procedures
NASA’s Boeing Starliner astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore are back on Earth after the successful splashdown of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying… pic.twitter.com/1PxQHBgVgx
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They were welcomed by Dolphins who were seen swimming around the capsule which was later retrieved by the recovery vessel. The recovery vessel successfully lifted the capsule out of the water after which the side hatch of the capsule was opened for the first time since September.
Crew-9 undocked at 10:35 am (IST), with NASA sharing a video of the spacecraft detaching from the space station. Elon Musk’s SpaceX was tasked with the responsibility to bring Crew-9 back to Earth. The Dragon capsule atop the Falcon 9 rocket was launched for the mission. Crew-10 has replaced Crew-9 at the International Space Station.
Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore, both former Navy pilots, had flown to the orbital lab on June 5 last year on what was supposed to be an eight-day mission and the first crewed flight of a Boeing Starliner. They were left stranded after the Starliner capsule suffered propulsion issues. Deemed unfit to fly, it returned uncrewed in September.
Amid uncertainty over their return journey, NASA reassigned them to SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, and a Dragon spacecraft was sent in September with a two-member crew, instead of the usual four, to make space for the stranded astronauts.
After a series of delays, a Dragon spacecraft carrying a relief team docked at the space station on Sunday.