NASA astronauts Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams finally returned home yesterday after spending nine months ‘stuck’ in orbit. The pair safely splashed down in the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at 5:57 p.m. EST, off the Gulf Coast near Tallahassee, Florida.
NASA streamed the moment live, showing what they described as a “capsule of smiles” as the parachutes deployed and the crew returned safely to Earth. But while everything had been carefully planned, something unexpected happened.

As the capsule bobbed on the water, viewers noticed a pod of dolphins surrounding the vessel. NASA later called them the “unplanned welcome crew.” One viewer said, “People are only just noticing how the NASA astronauts that were ‘stranded’ in space for months had an unexpected ‘earthly welcome.'”

Before the astronauts even met another human or took their first breath of fresh air, about six dolphins were already there, swimming and leaping nearby. NASA described the moment as a touching surprise after a long mission.While recovery teams waited, it was clear the astronauts’ homecoming had a special audience—one that no one had planned for.