After nine months on the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on March 18.

Months ago, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams watched as the Starliner spacecraft they rode to orbit undocked from the International Space Station and left them behind. While the troubled test capsule manufactured by Boeing for NASA missions returned to Earth empty-handed,