Two NASA astronauts have splashed down off the coast of Florida after spending more than nine months stuck in space.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams waved as they left their capsule – nearly an hour after it returned to Earth at about 6pm local time (10pm UK time).

Dolphins were seen swimming nearby while work was under way to remove it from the water.

The astronauts’ journey back from the International Space Station took 17 hours.

Senior NASA administrator Joel Montalbano described the landing as “beautiful” – and said their 150 experiments and 900 hours of research will inform future moon missions.

“The crew’s doing great… eventually they’ll make their way back to Houston,” NASA manager Steve Stich said – telling reporters they’ll get some “well-deserved time off” with their families once debriefs are complete.

They were only meant to be on the ISS for eight days when they blasted off from Earth on 5 June last year.

They were testing out Boeing’s long-awaited Starliner – a vessel designed to rival SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which is currently used to ferry astronauts into space.

But by the time they docked at the ISS, the Starliner had suffered major problems – with five helium leaks, five dead manoeuvring thrusters and a propellant valve that failed to close completely.

It returned to Earth without them after it was decided Mr Wilmore, 62, and Ms Williams, 59, would be safer waiting in orbit.

During their long wait in space, the two US Navy veterans completed spacewalks, experiments and even helped sort out the plumbing onboard the ISS.

The astronauts repeatedly said they enjoyed the mission, with Ms Williams describing the space station as her “happy place”.

Swept up in NASA’s routine astronaut rotation schedule, Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams could not begin their return to Earth until their replacement crew arrived in order to maintain adequate US staffing levels.

The SpaceX vehicle that has brought them home arrived at the space station in September carrying NASA’s Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, along with two empty seats.

The four-person crew, formally part of NASA’s Crew-9 astronaut rotation mission, re-entered Earth’s atmosphere at about 5.45pm local time on Tuesday.

Using two sets of parachutes, the craft slowed its orbital speed of roughly 17,000 miles per hour to a soft 17 miles per hour at splashdown.

The astronauts will soon be flown to their crew quarters at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for several days of health checks, per routine for astronaut returns, before NASA flight surgeons allow them to go home to their families.

Living in space for months can affect the human body in multiple ways, from muscle atrophy to possible vision impairment.

Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams have logged 286 days in space on the mission – longer than the average six-month ISS mission length, but far short of US record holder Frank Rubio.

His continuous 371 days in space, ending in 2023, were the unexpected result of a coolant leak on a Russian spacecraft.

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The mission has captured the attention of US President Donald Trump, who upon taking office in January called for a quicker return of Wilmore and Williams – and alleged without evidence that former President Joe Biden had “abandoned” them for political reasons.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a close adviser to Trump, echoed his call for an earlier return.

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Crew Dragon is America’s only orbital-class crew spacecraft, which Boeing had hoped its Starliner would compete with before the mission with Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams threw its development future into uncertainty.

“We came prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short,” Mr Wilmore told reporters from space earlier this month, adding that he did not believe NASA’s decision to keep them on the ISS until Crew-10’s arrival had been affected by politics.

“That’s what your nation’s human spaceflight program’s all about,” he said.

“Planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that.”

Vladimir Putin has agreed to an immediate 30-day pause in strikes on energy infrastructure in Ukraine during a lengthy phone call with Donald Trump.

The Russian and US presidents spoke for around an hour and a half as the Trump administration aims to bring about an end to the conflict which started after Moscow’s forces carried out a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Mr Putin agreed to the limited ceasefire but stopped short of backing a broader 30-day pause in fighting that the White House is pushing for.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after the call that he supports the US proposal to stop Kyiv’s strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.

Mr Zelenskyy added that the hopes to speak to Mr Trump to find out “what the Russians offered the Americans or what the Americans offered the Russians” during his conversation with Mr Putin.

He also said that future talks about Ukraine without Kyiv at the table will not bring results.

Ukraine war: Follow latest updates

During talks led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Saudi Arabia last week, Ukrainian officials agreed to the US proposal for a 30-day pause in fighting.

However, Mr Putin said during his call with Mr Trump on Tuesday that any long-term deal would require a complete halt to intelligence sharing and military aid to Ukraine from its allies.

Mr Zelenskky said in an online briefing after the call that Ukraine’s partners would never agree to such a move and that he hopes supplies will continue.

He added that Moscow’s demand was simply an example of Mr Putin attempting to weaken Ukraine.

US hopes call marks first step towards peace

The White House has said Mr Trump and Mr Putin agreed to a “movement to peace” it hopes will eventually include a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea and a full and lasting end to the fighting.

“These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East,” the White House added.

Mr Putin welcomed Mr Trump’s calls for the maritime ceasefire and “agreed to begin negotiations to further work out specific details of such an agreement”, according to the Kremlin.

Ukrainian officials had earlier proposed a ceasefire covering the Black Sea and long-range missile strikes and the release of prisoners at their meeting with the US delegation in Saudi Arabia earlier this month.

Read more:
What Sky’s correspondents think about Trump-Putin call
What would peace in Ukraine look like?

Prisoner swaps and hockey matches

The Kremlin also said after the call that Russia and Ukraine will exchange 175 prisoners of war each on Wednesday.

Moscow added that it will also hand over 23 badly wounded soldiers to Ukraine.

Mr Zelenskyy responded by saying Russia could show it was serious about peace talks by freeing all prisoners.

Meanwhile, Moscow said in its recap of the call that Mr Trump supported an idea from Mr Putin to organise ice hockey matches in the US between professional players from America and Russia.

The White House’s account of the conversation did not mention hockey.

Shortly after the call, Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War between Russia and Ukraine.”

Mr Zelenskyy remains sceptical that Mr Putin is ready for peace as Russian forces continue to pound Ukraine.

Mr Putin last week said he agreed in principle with the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, but emphasised that Russia would seek guarantees that Ukraine would not use a break in hostilities to rearm and continue mobilisation.

He has also demanded that Ukraine renounce joining the NATO military alliance, sharply cut its army, and protect Russian language and culture to keep the country in Moscow’s orbit.

Fears Washington favours Moscow

The call between Mr Trump and Mr Putin is just the latest turn in a dramatically shifting relationship between the two superpowers.

Mr Trump made bringing about a quick end to the conflict a top priority when he took office in January – straining ties with allies who want Mr Putin to pay a price for the invasion.

Mr Trump, who has long shown admiration for Mr Putin, has blamed Ukraine for Russia’s unprovoked invasion.

European countries have continued to show support for Ukraine as Mr Trump has appeared to favour Moscow as he aims to secure an end to the war.

Mr Zelenskyy said he spoke to German leader Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron following Tuesday’s call between the US and Russian presidents.

Meanwhile, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: “We welcome the progress President Trump has made towards a ceasefire and in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

“This process must lead to a just and lasting peace for Ukraine. We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes to ensure Russia can never launch an illegal invasion again.”

Shortly after the call, air raid alerts sounded in Kyiv which were followed by explosions in the city.

It comes after the AES Group private oil refinery was badly damaged after a shock Russian attack in the Kharkiv region on Monday.

The AES Group confirmed the destruction of the facility in Merefa after about 20 drones were launched at it.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone on Tuesday for at least 90 minutes.

Russia has agreed to a partial ceasefire on targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure as a result, for a period of 30 days.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that future talks about Ukraine without Kyiv at the table will not bring any results.

Here’s what two of Sky’s correspondents make of the Trump-Putin phone call.

Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent

I think Vladimir Putin will be very satisfied with the outcome of this call because even if he hasn’t gained a whole lot, he crucially hasn’t lost anything.

By agreeing to a ceasefire on energy infrastructure, he has given Donald Trump enough to ensure the wider US-Russia rapprochement remains intact.

There’s been talk in the last month of a reset of relations, of the lifting of sanctions – and Putin certainly doesn’t want to jeopardise that.

Follow live updates on aftermath of call

At the same time, though, Putin didn’t want to dilute any of his red lines. And by the sounds of it, they’re as indelible as ever.

The Kremlin’s readout of the call talks of a need to “eliminate the root causes of the crisis”, which is Kremlin code for “Russia’s security concerns regarding NATO expansion need to be met”.

One thing this call has given him though is the time to press home Russia’s military advantage.

This is particularly important to Putin in Russia’s Kursk region, where his forces are seemingly on the verge of eradicating Ukraine’s foothold, which would be of huge symbolic importance to the Kremlin.

James Matthews, US correspondent

They’re calling it “ceasefire-lite”. In Kyiv, they’ll choke on it.

The respective readouts of the Trump-Putin phone call don’t read well for Ukrainians relying on a US ally to do their bidding.

They had already agreed to a 30-day ceasefire with the Americans who said they were “on the 10th yard line of peace”.

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Moscow, clearly, has different ideas. To extend the American football metaphor, Vladimir Putin still has hands on the ball.

The Russians know Donald Trump. Prisoner exchanges present a trophy achievement.

There was, of all things, talk of US vs Russia ice hockey matches. In Moscow, they know Trump’s comfortable talking sport and that many Americans think hockey before they think Ukraine.

Read more: What are the options for peace in Ukraine?

It was dressing around a deal that is deeply flawed from Kyiv’s perspective.

Russian talk of eliminating “root causes of the crisis” speaks to Moscow’s desire to demilitarise Ukraine and lay claim to its territory.

Then there was Putin’s insistence on a “cessation of foreign military aid and the provision of intelligence information to Kyiv”.

To cut the supply of weapons and intelligence would weaken Ukraine while Russia strengthens. For Kyiv, it’s a line so red, it’s purple.

What Trump does next is pivotal. What he’s done so far boxes Ukraine into a corner, European allies too.

A common thread in the readouts was the positive talk of US-Russian relations to come – “an improved bilateral relationship… has huge upside” was Washington’s take.

It’s clear Trump and Putin share the vision of a geopolitical shift, built on shared priorities. The fate of Ukraine isn’t necessarily top of the list.