Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, after an unexpected stay at the International Space Station (ISS) for more than nine months, have returned to Earth and splashed down off the coast of the American state of Florida early on Wednesday.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship carrying the two astronauts, alongside American Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, streaked through the atmosphere before deploying parachutes for a gentle splashdown off the Florida coast at 3:27 am IST.
The two astronauts flew to the orbital lab in June last year, on what was supposed to be a days-long roundtrip to test Boeing’s Starliner on its first crewed flight. The spaceship, however, developed propulsion problems and was deemed unfit to fly back and later returned empty.