'Wanted to say hi': Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore welcomed by dolphins swimming around spacecraft. Watch video

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore made a successful splashdown off the coast of Florida at 3:37 am IST on Wednesday. The duo was greeted with spectacle as a pod of dolphins were swimming around the spacecraft.

A video captures the marine mammals encircling the floating capsule while recovery teams worked to retrieve the crew members. The unexpected encounter added to the moment where the astronauts returned from space safely after nine months.

'This is so cool'

A video of astronauts getting a warm welcome by astronauts has gone viral on social media, capturing the attention of netizens. The pods were seen swimming around the capsule when the operation to recover the capsule was underway.

"This is extremely cool," US Vice President JD Vance commented on one of the videos. Another user shared the video and said the dolphins "wanted to say hi to the astronauts".



The SpaceX Crew-9 mission, along with NASA, successfully finished its task aboard the International Space Station (ISS), marking another milestone in commercial spaceflight. The crew splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, where they were met not only by recovery teams but also by the nature.

A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying Butch Wilmore, Sunita Williams, fellow American Nick Hague, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, deploying parachutes for a smooth splashdown off the Florida coast at 3.37 am (2157 GMT).

The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule entered Earth's atmosphere and used parachutes for a smooth splashdown. As the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft, named Freedom, touched the waves, its exterior charred from enduring 3,500-degree Fahrenheit (2,000-degree Celsius) temperatures during re-entry.

Safety checks were conducted by fast boats and a recovery vessel soon followed to get the astronauts back on land. They will be flown to Houston for a 45-day rehabilitation program.

Wilmore and Williams were originally launched in June 2024 aboard Boeing’s Starliner for what was meant to be a short test flight. But things didn’t go to plan. The spacecraft suffered propulsion failures and was deemed unsafe for the return journey, forcing NASA to send it back to Earth—empty.

With no way home, the pair were reassigned to SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission. That mission, which arrived at the ISS in September, carried only two crew members instead of the usual four to make space for Wilmore and Williams. While the two became widely known as the "stranded astronauts," NASA pushed back against the label. Officials insisted that, in an emergency, they could have been brought home earlier.