Unplanned welcome: Dolphins greet astronauts as they return home after extended space mission

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, along with NASA’s Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, have returned to Earth after a lengthy journey that turned a planned eight-day mission into a nine-month in space.

The group, part of NASA/SpaceX’s Crew-9, was brought back by SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which safely splashed down off the coast of Florida at 3:27 a.m.

As the recovery operation unfolded, a beautiful and unexpected greeting awaited the astronauts. Dolphins were spotted swimming around the Dragon capsule while it was being retrieved from the ocean.

The playful marine mammals circled the spacecraft, providing an almost magical moment before the capsule was lifted onto the recovery vessel.

The recovery team carefully opened the side hatch of the capsule, marking the first time it had been opened since September.

The astronauts, who had spent months in space, were helped out of the capsule and transported to Houston for a 45-day rehabilitation program.

Crew-9’s return to Earth had its fair share of challenges. Originally, the mission, which was to be the first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner, was scheduled to last just eight days. However, due to technical issues with the Starliner capsule, Williams and Wilmore were left stranded in space. The propulsion problems with the Starliner led to its return in September without a crew.

Faced with uncertainty about their return, NASA reassigned the astronauts to SpaceX's Crew-9 mission.

In September, SpaceX sent a Dragon spacecraft to retrieve them, but only two crew members were on board, unlike the usual four, to accommodate the stranded astronauts.

The Dragon capsule atop the Falcon 9 rocket was launched for the mission. Crew-10 has replaced Crew-9 at the International Space Station.