The Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft has splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida.

With the spacecraft, NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have finally returned to Earth after being stranded on the International Space Station for nine months. They had arrived there in June 2024 aboard the Starliner. Along with them, NASA commander Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov from Roscosmos have also returned. This concludes the Crew 9 mission, which launched in September 2024 with only two astronauts instead of four to make room for Williams and Wilmore’s return. The splashdown occurred off the coast of Tallahassee, ending their unexpected ordeal. Within an hour, the astronauts were out of the capsule, waving and smiling at the cameras as they were transported on reclining stretchers for routine medical checks.

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore left the station along with NASA’s Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, who had arrived last fall with their SpaceX capsule, which had two empty seats reserved for the Starliner duo.

It all started with a test flight last spring. The two astronauts expected to stay away for only a week after launching on June 5 aboard Boeing’s new Starliner capsule. However, so many issues arose during the journey to the space station that NASA ultimately decided to return the Starliner empty and transfer the test pilots to SpaceX, delaying their return until February. Then, further problems with the SpaceX capsule caused another month’s delay. In the end, Wilmore and Williams spent 286 days in space—278 days longer than originally planned. They orbited the Earth 4,576 times and traveled 195 million kilometers before splashdown. With 62 hours spread over nine spacewalks, Williams set a record for the most extravehicular activity time by a female astronaut in her career.

Both had previously lived on the orbiting station and were familiar with the environment, reviewing their training before launch. Williams became the station commander three months after their arrival and held the position until early this month.

The arrival of the replacement crew on Sunday finally allowed Wilmore and Williams to leave. NASA slightly advanced their return due to uncertain weather forecasts for the week.