Alright, folks, let’s talk about something straight out of a sci-fi movie—except it actually happened. Imagine this: you’re an astronaut who’s been stuck in space for “nine months”. You finally make it back to Earth, splash down in the Gulf of Mexico, and who’s there to greet you? Not just the recovery crew—oh no. A whole pod of dolphins!
Yep, that’s exactly what happened when NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams, along with Russian cosmonaut Aleks Gorbunov, landed back on Earth in SpaceX’s Dragon Freedom capsule.
As the recovery teams were making their way to the capsule, a group of dolphins decided to join the welcome party. And honestly? It might be the most wholesome thing we’ve seen in space exploration “ever”.
NASA’s Johnson Space Center posted a video of the moment on X (formerly Twitter), showing the dolphins leaping around near the capsule as if they were just as excited about the astronauts’ return as we were. The post was captioned: ““The unplanned welcome crew! Crew-9 had some surprise visitors after splashing down this afternoon.”” Unplanned, indeed! Who knew dolphins were SpaceX fans?
A NASA commentator, caught up in the moment, described what she saw live: ““Wow, we got a cute little pod of dolphins, it wasn’t just one or two! I mean, that water just looks beautiful. We had ideal splashdown parameters today, obviously … the weather is beautiful.””
Social media went wild with the moment. Vice President JD Vance chimed in, calling it amazing. The Daily Wire’s Kassy Akiva referred to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” while sharing the moment.
NASA Spaceflight summed it up with pure excitement: ““WOW! Dolphins are providing the welcoming committee for Dragon Freedom!”” And journalist Greg Price added the cherry on top: ““Astronauts who were stuck in space for nine months splashing down in the Gulf of America and immediately being surrounded by a pack of dolphins is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.””
Now, let’s back up for a second. The return of Crew-9 was already a big deal. Williams and Wilmore were “only” supposed to be on the International Space Station (ISS) for a week. That turned into “nine months” thanks to a problem with their Boeing Starliner spacecraft. Meanwhile, Hague and Gorbunov arrived several months later and spent nearly six months in space before meeting up with the stranded duo. Enter SpaceX and their Dragon capsule, finally bringing them all home.
As per protocol, the Dragon capsule was set to be hoisted onto a rescue ship where the astronauts would undergo medical checks before stepping onto solid ground for the first time in “ages”. But before any of that could happen, nature had its own plans—because sometimes, the universe just throws you a perfect cinematic moment.
Welcome home, Crew-9. And shoutout to the dolphins for proving once again that they might just be the smartest creatures in the ocean.
