A pod of dolphins formed a welcome party Tuesday for four returning spacefarers aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule that splashed down off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida.
“The unplanned welcome crew! Crew-9 had some surprise visitors after splashing down this afternoon,” NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston wrote on X.
The unplanned welcome crew!
Crew-9 had some surprise visitors after splashing down this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/yuOxtTsSLV
— NASA’s Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) March 18, 2025
The capsule, carrying NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore as well as Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, returned to Earth from the International Space Station just before 6 p.m. Eastern time.
Ms. Williams and Mr. Wilmore were at the station months longer than planned. After docking at the ISS on June 6 on the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, they were supposed to stay a week.
Issues with the Starliner and NASA’s desire to keep the ISS properly crewed kept them up in space until early Tuesday, when the SpaceX Dragon capsule undocked.
Mr. Hague and Mr. Gorbunov were in space for their scheduled amount of time as part of the Crew-9 mission to conduct scientific experiments on the ISS. They first docked at the station on Sept. 29.
“We are thrilled to have Suni, Butch, Nick and Aleksandr home after their monthslong mission conducting vital science, technology demonstrations, and maintenance aboard the International Space Station,” Janet Petro, NASA’s acting administrator, said.
