On Tuesday (March 18) NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore splashed down into the Gulf of Mexico inside a SpaceX crew capsule, ending a more than nine-month stay in space that was originally slated to last just a few weeks. When their capsule was finally opened, the astronauts were carried out of the spacecraft and loaded onto stretchers.
The astronauts were not sick or injured; the reason for this procedure has nothing to do with Williams and Wilmore's specific mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), but is simply a matter of protocol that all astronauts must follow, experts told Live Science.
