Starliner and Crew-9 astronauts arrive home in Houston: Space photo of the day

Welcome home to the members of Crew-9!

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, Suni WIlliams and Nick Hague, together with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov arrived home on Tuesday night (March 18), just hours after splashing down from the International Space Station.

Where did the astronauts come home to?

After landing off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida and being helped out of SpaceX's Crew Dragon "Freedom" on Tuesday evening (March 18), the four members of Crew-9 (including two former Boeing Starliner test flight astronauts) were flown by helicopter from a recovery ship to shore, where they boarded a NASA Gulfstream jet for Houston.

Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov touched down at 11:19 p.m. CDT (12:19 a.m. EDT or 0419 GMT on March 19) at Ellington Field, NASA's base for flight operations near the Johnson Space Center. There, the four crewmates were greeted by fellow astronauts, NASA officials and their family members.

Why is this crew return different from others?

For Hague and Gorbunov, this was the normal end of a 170-day mission aboard the International Space Station. Standard return-to-Earth protocols has returning crew members remaining at Johnson Space Center for several days before they are approved by flight surgeons to return to their homes.

For Williams and Wilmore, this arrival marked the end of an unexpectedly-long journey, which began with their launch on Boeing's CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on what could have been as brief as a 12-day mission to a 286-day stay on the International Space Station. Propulsion problems resulted in NASA deciding to land the Starliner without its crew and bringing Williams and Wilmore home on SpaceX's Dragon instead.

Where can you learn more?

You can read more about the crew's return to Earth and splashdown or watch a video of the pod of dolphins which came out to see the landing.