It was beautiful.

Four big billowing parachutes bearing a space capsule splashed down into the deep ocean, (this one in the Gulf of America), just as they did in the 1960s and 1970s.

I can't have been the only one who felt a sense of déjà vu from that brighter and more rational era.

NASA astronauts who had been stranded in space for nine long months finally splashed down after a SpaceX rescue mission to bring them back.

Space travel is dangerous and the NASA astronauts' mission was evidence enough of that -- its ride back to Earth failed in its mission. The same could even be said of Elon Musk's SpaceX, which is no stranger to seeing its rockets blow up. Things happen in space travel. It was with bated breath that I followed the 17-hour journey to bring the astronauts to Earth, hoping against hope that it all would go well.

Imagine getting stranded for nine months in space and disaster strikes with the rescue vehicle -- it's too awful to think about.

But it all came down with pitch-perfect competence, SpaceX proving its mojo for space travel, surely the best in the entire industry and all the world.

Yet at that magic moment when the capsule containing the precious astronauts was opened -- it got better: Dolphins appeared, lots of dolphins, and circled and swam around them, as if dancing with glee to welcome the astronauts home. Dancing dolphins amid the bright blue sky and the sweet feel of wet water and the tug of gravity!

Dolphins! Glorious dolphins, fearfully and wonderfully made. How joyful could it be?

It was the sort of thing that surely made some sense if something divine were present.

Sure, dolphins are just intelligent sea mammals, doing what dogs and cats do whenever they see humans up to something, which is gathering to observe.

But something about it seemed more significant.

Dolphins as symbols represent joy, playfulness, healing, freedom, intelligence, transformation, protection, balance and good luck, among other things.

This is from Google AI:

America is all about freedom. And it's always tranforming itself -- now under President Trump and his ally Elon Musk, positively metamorphosing.

And intelligence: The SpaceX rescue rocket took a lot of intelligence, big intelligence, to reach its astronauts orbiting in space, hook up safely, take the astronauts out, and bring them home safely in just the targeted spot in the water. Failure was not an option.

Healing? The rescue signaled that the failed mission was healed.

Protection? Absolutely -- after these astronauts were so callously just left in space by Joe Biden based on his jealous desire to not see Musk get credit. It was beyond revolting as we now learn of the costs in health that the astronauts pay from extended time in outer space, just waiting and hoping no one would forget them. But they were saved thanks to Musk and his dedicated colleagues, and there was protection.

And good luck? It goes without saying.

We all recall how the Cuban-Americans spoke of dolphins protecting the young Elian Gonzalez as he floated in the ocean after a capsized voyage to the U.S. from Cuba, his mother lost to the sea, but the child surviving. It, too, happened in the waters off Florida.

It was simply beautiful what spontaneously happened -- the dolphins came out as if to serve as envoys for all creation on Earth and all its many glories, telling the returning astronauts 'welcome home.'

Who could have anticipated it?

It's good to be back to Earth. The dolphins were just the right gift, a seeming smile from the heavens.

Image: Screen shot from X video.