Sunita Williams and Crew-9 celebrate safe return from space journey

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday expressed delight over the return of NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and her fellow Crew-9 members and said they have rewritten the history of human endurance and perseverance in space.

Williams and fellow NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Butch Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, returned to Earth onboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, which splashed down in the sea off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida in the US.

"Delighted at the safe return of NASA's #Crew9 on earth! The crew comprising of India's daughter Sunita Williams and other astronauts have rewritten the history of human endurance and perseverance in Space. Sunita Williams' incredible journey, unwavering dedication, fortitude and fighting spirit will inspire millions across the globe," Singh wrote in a post on X.

Her safe return is a moment of celebration for space enthusiasts and the entire world, he said.

"Her courage and achievements make us all proud. Congratulations and a big thank you to all stakeholders for bringing them back safely on earth," Singh further said in his post.

For Williams and Wilmore, test pilots for Boeing's new Starliner capsule, an eight-day mission stretched to more than nine months as a series of helium leaks and thruster failures deemed their spacecraft unsafe. The spacecraft returned without them in September.

Williams and Wilmore bid farewell to the International Space Station, their home since last June, departing aboard a SpaceX capsule alongside two other astronauts.

The capsule undocked from the space station on Tuesday and splashed down off the Florida coast on Wednesday morning, after clocking 286 days in space. This was Williams' third space flight and she has clocked a cumulative 608 days in space.

A former US Navy captain, Williams, 59, was born to a Gujarati father Deepak Pandya hailing from Jhulasan in Mehsana district and Slovenian mother Ursuline Bonnie Pandya, on September 19, 1965 in Euclid, Ohio.