NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore splashed down off the Gulf Coast near Tallahassee, Florida, a little before 6 p.m. local time today (March 18). The 286-day mission, which began last June aboard a NASA Boeing Starliner spacecraft, was expected to last just over a week. Also on board the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that brought them home were NASA’s Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov of the Russian space agency.
The Starliner, designed as an alternative to Elon Musk’s SpaceX competitor, experienced technical problems on its voyage to the International Space Station, leading NASA engineers to ultimately send it back to Earth without the two astronauts. The competing SpaceX spacecraft stepped in to bring the two home.
According to a New York Times online post, Williams and Wilmore will travel to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston following preliminary medical checks. They will spend some time at the center’s astronaut quarters before NASA doctors release them to reunite with their families and return home.
