India, March 19 -- Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Earth after an unexpected nine-month stay in space. The NASA astronauts, along with fellow American Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov safely splashed down off the Florida coast at 5.57 pm ET on Tuesday (3.27 am IST, Wednesday).

Their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, 'Freedom', glided through Earth's atmosphere, enduring blistering temperatures of around 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1650 degrees Celsius), before parachuting into the Gulf of Mexico near Tallahassee.

A recovery vessel promptly retrieved the quartet, who appeared in good spirits after exiting the capsule. They will be flown to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where they will undergo a 45-day r...