Video captures Boeing Starliner astronauts splash down after 9 months in space
Some Tallahassee, Florida residents may have caught a momentous sighting Tuesday as four astronauts made their way from space down to the Florida coast.
Two of those spacefarers included NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who spent more than nine months in space despite initially only planning for a 10 day venture. The pair arrived at the International Space Station on June 5 aboard the infamous Boeing Starliner but could not return due to discovered technical issues with the spacecraft.
Video caught the splash down at around 5:57 p.m. EDT showing four parachutes successfully ease a safe landing into the Florida waters. Footage from inside the Dragon captured the looks as the four spacefarers became Earthlings once again.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov were also on board, reaching the station on Sept. 29 onboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that finally returned to Earth Tuesday evening.
"And splashdown. Crew-9 back on Earth," NASA communications officer Sandra Jones said while commenting on NASA's livestream.
Why were the astronauts 'stuck' in space?
Wilmore and Williams arrived June 5 at the International Space Station for a 10 day mission as part of Boeing's Starliner's first crewed flight test.
However, NASA discovered the vehicle underwent helium leaks and propulsion problems that deemed a return flight unsafe for the two. So, the vehicle returned to Earth empty for a parachute landing in the New Mexico desert. The space agency decided against launching an emergency mission and instead kept the pair in orbit.
SpaceX launched its already planned Crew-9 mission with just two astronauts, Hague and Gorbunov, so they could retrieve Wilmore and Williams when their six month rotation concluded. Last week, four Crew-10 astronauts arrived onboard a separate SpaceX Dragon making the way for Crew-9 to return home.
Where did the astronauts land?
Wilmore, Williams, Hague and Gorbunov returned to Earth off the Florida coast near Tallahassee with favorable weather ahead of sunset.
"Nick, Alek, Butch, Suni, on behalf of SpaceX, welcome home," the four were told by someone from Mission Control.
Contributing: Eric Lagatta, Paste BN