Dolphins were among the first to greet Nasa astronauts Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore as they returned to Earth on Tuesday, 18 March, following an unexpected nine additional months on board the International Space Station.
The former Navy captains returned home in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft alongside Crew-9 mission members Nick Hague and Russian Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Marine mammals circled the capsule as divers readied it for hoisting onto the recovery ship.
Williams and Wilmore were expected to be in space for around a week in June 2024.
However, technical issues forced the capsule to return to Earth without them, leaving the astronauts in orbit with no immediate way home.
