After 286 days in house, two American astronauts who’ve been caught on the Worldwide Area Station since final spring are lastly again down on Earth.

Butch Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams splashed down softly off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida as we speak at about 5:58 PM ET, following a 19-hour journey in a SpaceX spacecraft, alongside astronauts Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov.

It was a easy arrival again to Planet Earth, with Dragon Freedom’s Crew-9 parachutes deploying 6,000 ft within the air, and the management room erupting in cheers as they splashed down into the water.

A reduction crew arrived on the ISS Sunday, giving Butch and Suni the inexperienced mild to move house after 9 months spent in house. NASA even bumped up their return by a day to dodge some unfavorable climate later this week.

Wilmore and Williams, each check pilots, had been solely purported to be in house for 8 days … they flew the Boeing Starliner as much as the ISS in June final 12 months, however as a result of thruster points and helium leaks, NASA determined to return the spacecraft to Earth utterly empty — forcing the surprising staycation in house for Butch and Suni. They’ve been caught on the Worldwide Area Station ever since.

To be clear … they had been by no means truly “stranded” — Butch and Suni had arrived on the ISS ready for an prolonged keep within the occasion one thing on the mission went sideways … because it did. NASA was contemplating whether or not the 2 may fly again on the Boeing Starliner, however NASA vetoed them getting on that return journey over security considerations.

Then they’d the chance to return in September, however they opted to remain, for the reason that SpaceX craft despatched up on the time stored 2 crew members off the flight, to present Buch and Suni seats for the experience again … however that might have left no replacements on the ISS if they’d departed. So that they stayed.