WATCH- NASA astronauts Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore return to Earth after 9 months in space

NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who had been stuck in space for more than nine months, returned to Earth on Tuesday.

The SpaceX capsule streaked through the atmosphere before deploying parachutes for a gentle splashdown off the Florida's coast later on Tuesday at 5:57 p.m. ET.

The crew, which also includes astronauts Nick Hague from the US and Aleksandr Gorbunov from Russia, were flown to NASA's Space Center in Houston for health checks.

NASA astronauts finally leave space station

Live footage showed the astronauts laughing, hugging and posing for photos with their colleagues from the station before they left the ISS.

They were then sealed inside the capsule, wearing their re-entry suits, boots and helmets, for two hours while final pressure, communications and seal tests were carried out.

The four-person crew is formally a part of NASA's Crew-9 astronaut rotation mission.

"Crew-9 is going home," said commander Nick Hague from inside the capsule.

Hague said it was a privilege to "call the station home" as part of an international effort for the "benefit of humanity."

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Tune in for a splashdown!@NASA_Astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov are returning to Earth in their @SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. #Crew9 splashdown is targeted for 5:57pm ET (2157 UTC). https://t.co/Yuat1FqZxw

— NASA (@NASA) March 18, 2025 >

Prolonged mission turned into political spectacle

The two veteran NASA astronauts and retired US Navy test pilots were sent into space as Starliner's first crew in June. 

There mission was initially supposed to last just a few days.

However, problems with the Starliner's propulsion system led to multiple delays in their return home which led NASA to decide that they would return to Earth in a SpaceX craft.

Willmore and Williams's stay in space exceeded the standard six-month long ISS rotation.

The delay in the mission spotlighted NASA's contingency planning as well as the failures of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft.

The mission even gained political attention with US President Donald Trump calling for a quicker return of the astronauts and alleging that former President Joe Biden "abandoned" them on the ISS for political reasons.