Stuck in space no more, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams returned to Earth on Tuesday (18), hitching a different ride home to close out a saga that began with a bungled test flight more than nine months ago.

Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico in the early evening, just hours after departing the International Space Station. Splashdown occurred off the coast of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle, bringing their unplanned odyssey to an end.

Within an hour, the astronauts were out of their capsule, waving and smiling at the cameras while being hustled away in reclining stretchers for routine medical checks.

Williams and Wilmore launched to space last June on a rocky test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. NASA officials later decided it was too risky to return them on the same vehicle.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was among the space and political officials who congratulated his company and NASA for bringing Crew-9 back from the International Space Station today.

Musk thanked the teams on X for “another safe astronaut return” and President Donald Trump “for prioritizing this mission.”

The US Space Command also celebrated the splashdown, posting on X: “Welcome home #Crew9!”