NASA's Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore - who gained international attention as their planned short stay in space stretched into a more than nine-month, politically fraught mission - are finally home.
Williams and Wilmore, alongside NASA's Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov of Russia's Roscosmos space agency, safely splashed down off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida at 5:57 p.m. ET.
The crew's highly anticipated return came after the crew climbed aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and departed the International Space Station at 1:05 a.m. ET.
After the vehicle hits the ocean, a SpaceX rescue ship waiting nearby will work to haul the spacecraft out of the water, and Williams and Wilmore will exit Dragon and take their first breaths of earthly air in nine months.