As soon as a SpaceX capsule carrying Williams and astronaut Butch Wilmore splashed down near the Florida coast in the US, the villagers erupted in joy, bursting firecrackers, dancing and chanting “Har Har Mahadev” on a temple premises
Williams and Wilmore initially launched to the ISS on June 6, 2024, aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. However, after a malfunction in the spacecraft, they were left stranded.
The group, part of NASA/SpaceX’s Crew-9, was brought back by SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which safely splashed down off the coast of Florida at 3:27 a.m.
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying them and two other astronauts—Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov—splashed down into the waters off the coast of Florida state just minutes before 6 p.m., as NASA had announced.