Astronauts 'Stranded' in Space for 9 Months Are Finally Heading Back to Earth: 'They're on Their Way!'

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been in space for the past nine months, are officially on the way home.

The pair started their journey back to Earth on Tuesday, March 18, undocking from the International Space Station "right on time" at 1:05 a.m. ET.

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov — who have been in space since last September — joined them on the return flight home. The astronauts, also known as SpaceX Crew-9, are expected to splash down in Florida shortly before 6 p.m. local time. A press conference is expected to follow around 7:30 p.m.

In a video shared by NASA on X, formerly Twitter, the SpaceX Crew Dragon could be seen undocking with the commentator on the clip confirming that Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were "beginning their delayed trip home." The video's caption added, "They're on their way!"

This latest launch comes after a new crew arrived at the ISS after taking off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, March 14.

The crew, part of a joint SpaceX and NASA mission, consists of astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with mission specialists JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

Wilmore and Williams' return comes after nine months in orbit and several delays to return them home. The pair arrived at the ISS in June 2024, originally expecting to stay in space for no more than 10 days.

However, after their spacecraft encountered mechanical issues, their return was delayed. After weeks of troubleshooting, the spacecraft was sent back to Earth without them. Since then, their return home has continually been pushed back and become politically charged, with President Donald Trump blaming their lengthy stay in space on his predecessor.

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Throughout their time in space, Wilmore and Williams celebrated multiple holidays, including Thanksgiving and Christmas — and they even voted in the 2024 U.S. elections, a process that NASA made "very easy," according to Wilmore.

As they remained in space, the pair have spoken openly about their experience. In January, Williams told a group of Needham High School students that the extended trip came as “a little bit of a shock."

"We knew that it would be probably a month or so, honestly. But the extended stay was just a little bit different,” she explained, according to WBZ-TV. “I haven't walked. I haven't sat down. I haven't laid down. You don't have to. You can just close your eyes and float where you are right here."

Weeks later, Wilmore told CNN's Anderson Cooper that despite the rhetoric they are "stranded," they "don’t feel abandoned." He added, "We don’t feel stuck, we don’t feel stranded."

“If you’ll help us change the rhetoric, help us change the narrative, let’s change it to ‘prepared and committed.’ That’s what we prefer," he said.

Williams echoed the sentiments in a separate press conference earlier this month. "Every day is interesting because we're up in space and it's a lot of fun," Williams said. "The hardest part is having the folks on the ground have to not know exactly when we're coming back."