Watch: Sunita Williams smiles and waves in first pic as she returns to Earth after 286 days

Williams returned to Earth along with fellow NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard SpaceX Crew 9 Dragon spacecraft.

By: Express Web Desk

Updated: March 19, 2025 07:40 AM IST

3 min read

NASA astronaut Suni Williams gives a thumbs-up after being helped out of a SpaceX capsule onboard the SpaceX recovery ship Megan after landing in the water off the coast of Tallahassee, Fla. (Keegan Barber/NASA via AP)

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams landed safely on Earth at around 3:30am (IST) on Wednesday and concluded a historic yet unexpected space event, where she spent 286 days in the International Space Station due to a technical fault in her Boeing Starliner spacecraft.

Williams, 59, returned to Earth along with fellow NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard the SpaceX Crew 9 Dragon spacecraft. The crew splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida’s Tallahassee.

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Hague and Gorbunov flew to the space station on Dragon when Falcon 9 launched the spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on September 28, SpaceX informed.

Sunita Williams smiled and waved at the camera as soon as she came out of the Dragon capsule after spending over nine months in space.

This image taken from video provided by SpaceX shows NASA’s Suni Williams being helped after exiting the SpaceX capsule. (SpaceX via AP)

Recovery teams, which were already waiting for the Dragon capsule, quickly lifted it out of the ocean and thereafter helped the astronauts in exiting it.

NASA was forced to adjust its plans after the carrier Boeing Starliner faced technical issues which transported Williams and Wilmore to space on June 5, 2024. It was originally planned as an eight day trip but it got extended to about 286 days for the astronaut duo.

Also Read | How Sunita Williams’ week-long space mission turned into a 9-month stay

Due to her prolonged stay in space, reports claimed health scare for Sunita Williams with possible issues like baby feet, bone density loss among others.

But during an interview in November 2024, Williams was quoted as saying, “We’re feeling good, working out, eating right…People who are worried about us, really, don’t worry about us. We’re a happy crew up here.”

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