PTC News Desk: The White House on Tuesday highlighted how US President Donald Trump prioritised the return of stranded NASA Crew-9 astronauts Sunita Williams, Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
The White House stated that the astronauts safely returned in the Gulf of America, crediting Elon Musk for their safe return.
"PROMISE MADE, PROMISE KEPT: President Trump pledged to rescue the astronauts stranded in space for nine months. Today, they safely splashed down in the Gulf of America, thanks to Elon Musk, SpaceX, and NASA!"
Elon Musk congratulated the NASA and SpaceX teams on their successful return and thanked Trump for prioritising the mission.
"Congratulations to the SpaceX and NASA teams for another safe astronaut return! Thank you to Donald Trump for prioritizing this mission!"
Earlier in the day, NASA Crew-9 astronauts breathed earthly air for the first time in over nine months following the successful splashdown of SpaceX's Dragon capsule. The astronauts disembarked the capsule on stretchers, as is customary, CNN reported. This precaution is taken by SpaceX for all astronauts returning from long-duration space missions.
Delays caused by issues with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, which surfaced during a test flight piloted by Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams last summer, led to the astronaut duo remaining in space for nine months instead of a week.
NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 completed the agency's ninth commercial crew rotation mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday, splashing down safely in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, in the Gulf of America, according to a NASA statement.
NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Sunita Williams, and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, returned to Earth at 5:57 pm EDT. Teams aboard SpaceX recovery vessels retrieved the spacecraft and its crew. After returning to shore, the astronauts will travel to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to reunite with their families.
