Nasa astronauts Butch and Suni finally back on Earth

After nine months in space, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have finally returned to Earth.

Their SpaceX capsule entered the Earth's atmosphere quickly and fieryly before four parachutes opened and brought them to a smooth splashdown off the coast of Florida.

A school of dolphins circled the ship.

After the rescue ship lifted him out of the water, the astronauts beamed and waved as they were helped out of the hatch along with fellow crew members astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov.

“The crew is doing great,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA's commercial crew program, said at a news conference.

This ends a mission that was only supposed to last eight days.

It was expanded dramatically after the spacecraft that carried Butch and Suni to the International Space Station developed technical problems.

“It's great to have the ninth crew home, it's just a beautiful landing,” said Joel Montalbano, associate associate administrator for NASA's Office of Space Operations.

Thanking the astronauts for their resilience and flexibility, he said SpaceX has been a “great partner.”

The journey home took 17 hours.

The astronauts were helped onto stretchers, which is standard practice after being in zero gravity for so long.

They will be examined by a medical team and then reunited with their families.

“The main thing is to see friends, family and the people they expected to spend Christmas with,” said Helen Sharman, Britain's first astronaut.

“All those family holidays, birthdays and other events they thought they were going to be a part of – now they may suddenly be able to make up for lost time.”

The saga of Butch and Suni began in June 2024.

They took part in the first manned test flight of the Starliner spacecraft, developed by the aerospace company Boeing.

But the capsule encountered several technical problems during its journey to the space station, and bringing the astronauts home was deemed too risky.

The Starliner returned safely to Earth empty in early September, but that meant the couple needed a new voyage to return.

So NASA chose its next scheduled flight: a SpaceX capsule that arrived at the ISS in late September.

He flew with two astronauts instead of four, leaving two empty seats for Butch and Sunya to return.

The only catch was that the mission was scheduled for six months, which extended the astronauts' stay until now.

A NASA couple is excited about their longer-than-expected stay in space.

They conducted a series of experiments aboard the orbiting laboratory and went into outer space, and Suni broke the record for the woman who spent the most hours outside the space station. And for Christmas, the team dressed up in Santa hats and reindeer antlers, sending a festive message to The Christmas they originally planned to spend at home.

And despite the fact that the astronauts are called “stranded”, in reality they were not.

Throughout the mission, there were always spaceships attached to the space station that could transport them and others on board home in the event of an emergency.

The astronauts have now arrived home and will soon be flown to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where they will be examined by medical specialists.

Long-term space flights take a toll on the body: astronauts lose bone density and suffer from loss of muscle mass. Blood circulation is also affected, and fluid shifts can also affect vision.

It can take a long time for the body to return to normal, so the couple will be given an extensive exercise regimen as their bodies adapt to life in gravity.

British astronaut Tim Peake said it may take some time to adapt.

“Your body feels great, a festive feeling,” he told the BBC.

“Your heart feels light, your muscles and bones feel light. You float around the space station in this wonderful zero-gravity environment.

“But you have to maintain your exercise routine. Because you stay fit in space, not during space itself, but when you return back to the harsh gravitational environment of the Earth. The first two or three days on Earth can be really tough.”

In interviews on board, Butch and Suni said they were well prepared for the longer-than-expected stay, but there were things they were looking forward to once they got home.

Speaking to CBS last month, Suni Williams said: “I'm looking forward to seeing my family, my dogs and jumping into the ocean. It will be really cool to come back to Earth and feel the Earth.”