NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have finally returned to Earth after spending nine months in space on a mission that was supposed to last just eight days. The duo left Earth in June 2024 on a mission to test Boeing Starliner's capsule.

Upon their return aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule, Williams and Wilmore were carefully wheeled off the spacecraft on stretchers, a standard NASA protocol for returning astronauts due to the effects of prolonged weightlessness.

Today, after over nine months, the Crew-9 team returned to earth. After a 17-hour-long journey, the spacecraft deployed its parachute before a splashdown in the ocean off the coast of Florida.