Astronauts Butch and Suni finally back on Earth

After 9 months successful space, Nasa astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams person yet arrived backmost connected Earth.

Their SpaceX capsule made a accelerated and fiery re-entry done the Earth's atmosphere, earlier 4 parachutes opened to instrumentality them to a gentle splash down disconnected the seashore of Florida.

A pod of dolphins circled the craft.

After a betterment vessel lifted it of the water, the astronauts beamed and waved arsenic they were helped retired of the hatch, on with chap unit members astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

"The crew's doing great," Steve Stich, manager, Nasa's Commercial Crew Program said astatine a quality conference.

It brings to an extremity a ngo that was expected to past for conscionable 8 days.

It was dramatically extended aft the spacecraft Butch and Suni travelled to the International Space Station suffered method problems.

"It is awesome to person unit 9 home, conscionable a beauteous landing," said Joel Montalbano, lawman subordinate administrator, Nasa's Space Operations Mission Directorate.

He thanked the astronauts for their resilience and flexibility and said SpaceX had been a "great partner".

The travel location took 17 hours.

The astronauts were helped onto a stretcher, which is modular signifier aft spending truthful agelong successful the weightless environment.

They'll beryllium checked implicit by a aesculapian team, and past reunited with their families.

"The large happening volition beryllium seeing friends and household and the radical who they were expecting to walk Christmas with," said Helen Sharman, Britain's archetypal astronaut.

"All of those household celebrations, the birthdays and the different events that they thought they were going to beryllium portion of - now, abruptly they tin possibly drawback up connected a spot of mislaid time."

The saga of Butch and Suni began successful June 2024.

They were taking portion successful the archetypal crewed trial formation of the Starliner spacecraft, developed by aerospace institution Boeing.

But the capsule suffered respective method problems during its travel to the abstraction station, and it was deemed excessively risky to instrumentality the astronauts home.

Starliner returned safely to Earth bare successful aboriginal September, but it meant the brace needed a caller thrust for their return.

So Nasa opted for the adjacent scheduled flight: a SpaceX capsule that arrived astatine the ISS successful precocious September.

It flew with 2 astronauts alternatively of four, leaving 2 seats spare for Butch and Suni's return.

The lone drawback was this had a planned six period mission, extending the astronauts enactment until now.

The Nasa brace person embraced their longer-than-expected enactment successful space.

They've carried retired an array of experiments connected committee the orbiting laboratory and conducted spacewalks, with Suni breaking the grounds for the pistillate who's spent the astir hours extracurricular of the abstraction station. And astatine Christmas, the squad dressed successful Santa hats and reindeer antlers - sending a festive connection for a Christmas that they had primitively planned to nonstop astatine home.

And contempt the astronauts being described arsenic "stranded" they ne'er truly were.

Throughout their ngo determination person ever been spacecraft attached to the abstraction presumption to get them - and the remainder of those onboard - location if determination was an emergency.

Now the astronauts person arrived home, they volition soon beryllium taken to the Johnson Space Centre successful Houston, Texas,. wherever they volition beryllium checked implicit by aesculapian experts.

Long duration missions successful abstraction instrumentality a toll connected the body, astronauts suffer bony density and endure musculus loss. Blood circulation is besides affected, and fluid shifts tin besides interaction eyesight.

It tin instrumentality a agelong clip for the assemblage to instrumentality to normal, truthful the brace volition beryllium fixed an extended workout authorities arsenic their bodies re-adapt to surviving with gravity.

British astronaut Tim Peake said it tin instrumentality a portion to re-adjust.

"Your assemblage feels great, it feels similar a holiday," helium told the BBC.

"Your bosom is having an casual time, your muscles and bones are having an casual time. You're floating astir the abstraction presumption successful this fantastic zero gravity environment.

"But you indispensable support up the workout regime. Because you're staying acceptable successful space, not for abstraction itself, but for erstwhile you instrumentality backmost to the punishing gravity situation of Earth. Those archetypal 2 oregon 3 days backmost connected Earth tin beryllium truly punishing."

In interviews portion onboard, Butch and Suni person said they were good prepared for their longer than expected enactment - but determination were things they were looking guardant to erstwhile they got home.

Speaking to CBS past month, Suni Williams said "I'm looking guardant to seeing my family, my dogs and jumping successful the ocean. That volition beryllium truly bully - to beryllium backmost connected Earth and consciousness Earth."