'I See a Capsule Full of Grins, Ear to Ear'

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have returned to Earth from a mission that was supposed to last around eight days when it began last June. A SpaceX capsule carrying Wilmore, Williams, and two others returning from the International Space Station successfully splashed down off the coast of Florida at 5:57pm Eastern, Space.com reports. A pod of curious dolphins swam up to investigate the capsule before it was pulled out of the water, reports the New York Times.

Wilmore and Williams ended up spending 286 days in space because of problems with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that brought them to the ISS, reports the AP. They were joined on the return journey by fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who had been on the ISS for six months The BBC reports that after the capsule splashed down, the control center said, "Nick, Alec, Butch, Suni—on behalf of SpaceX, welcome home." Hague replied, "What a ride. I see a capsule full of grins, ear to ear." The four were given brief medical checks on the capsule recovery vessel before they were taken to land by helicopter.

The four were later taken to crew quarters at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas for further medical evaluation. At a press conference, Steve Stich, manager of NASA's commercial crew program, said the astronauts would be reunited with their families in "the next day or so." Asked whether the timing of the astronauts' return to Earth would have been different if Kamala Harris had won the election, Joel Montalbano from NASA's space operations mission directorate said the agency works to carry out the directives of whoever is president, the Guardian reports. Earlier in the press conference, he said NASA was already looking at options when President Trump asked about the astronauts in January

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"Opting to extend a mission from eight days to nine months was far from ideal for NASA," says BBC science editor Rebecca Morelle. "But Butch and Suni's response—to adapt to a new situation and throw themselves into life on the space station—is part of being what an astronaut is all about. To have a plan—and be prepared to change it." Last month, the two astronauts told CNN they didn't feel stranded. "That's been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck — and I get it. We both get it," Wilmore said. "But that is, again, not what our human spaceflight program is about. We don't feel abandoned, we don't feel stuck, we don't feel stranded." This story has been updated with new developments. (More astronauts stories.)