TALLAHASSEE, Florida — NASA‘s Crew-9 mission successfully returned to Earth on Tuesday, March 18, at 5:57 p.m. EDT, when the SpaceX Dragon Freedom splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, concluding a nine-month journey for astronauts Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Butch Wilmore.
The mission, which originally aimed for a short-duration flight to the International Space Station (ISS), extended significantly due to issues with Boeing‘s CST-100 Starliner capsule. Williams and Wilmore had been part of the inaugural crewed flight of the Starliner, which was forced to return unmanned. Their presence aboard the ISS stretched their mission long past initial expectations.
Alongside Williams and Wilmore, Crew-9 included NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, completing their joint return after departing from the ISS earlier that day. The Crew Dragon Freedom undertook its deorbit burn at approximately 5:11 p.m. EDT, setting it on a safe path for splashdown.
As the astronauts bid farewell to their colleagues aboard the ISS, Commander Nick Hague remarked, “On behalf of Crew-9, I’d like to say it was a privilege to call the station home. To live and work as part of a mission that benefits humanity is truly rewarding.”
The return effort was enhanced by favorable weather conditions, which prompted mission managers to move up the splashdown date from the originally scheduled Wednesday. The capsule entered the Earth’s atmosphere with temperatures reaching nearly 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, but successfully employed its heat shield to maintain safety.
The return marked the ninth operational crew return for SpaceX under NASA’s commercial crew program. NASA spokespersons confirmed that the landing site might change due to weather but was targeted offshore from the west coast of Florida.
During their extended stay aboard the ISS, Williams and Wilmore completed more than 4,500 orbits around Earth and traveled over 121 million miles. Williams logged her third space flight, totaling 608 days in space, making her the astronaut with the second-most time spent off Earth among U.S. astronauts.
The SpaceX Dragon’s successful journey home comes at a time when NASA eyes future missions that may shift splashdown sites to the Pacific Ocean to avoid potential debris concerns in populated areas.
After landing, the capsule was recovered by a support ship, where the astronauts received a well-deserved welcome back to Earth, including a pod of dolphins swimming nearby during the capsule’s recovery operations.
