Their return caps a protracted space mission that was fraught with uncertainty and technical troubles and turned a rare instance of NASA's contingency planning - and the latest failures of Boeing's Starliner - into a global spectacle.

A SpaceX capsule carrying two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, splashed down off Florida’s Gulf Coast on Tuesday, concluding their unexpectedly long stay in space.

Both astronauts look tired, thinner and with a duller complexion, but can be seen grinning from ear to ear after they splashed back down on Earth nine months after jetting off into space