Stranded NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will return to Earth after being in space since June 2024 for a mission originally slated for 8 days.

In a news briefing following the landing, Nasa spokesperson Steve Stich said: "From a human perspective, all of us feel happy about the successful landing, but then there's a piece of us - all of us - that wish it would have been the way we had planned it.

The Crew-9 mission, consisting of NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, is set to return to Earth after a brief handover period with the newly arrived Crew-10 expedition crew, pending weather conditions at the splashdown sites off the coast of Florida.

NASA’s Space-X Crew-10 is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday night to the International Space Station. After they arrive, their Dragon capsule will serve as a ride home for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams who have had an extended stay in space for nine months.

NASA revealed details of the return of Sunita Williams and other Crew 9 members back to Earth from space. Will it be Sunita Williams' 'final good-bye' to space? Will Elon Musk help in their return?

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are expected to return back to Earth after eight months in space. What sounds like a routine part of astronaut life becomes significantly more unusual when you realise that their mission was only actually supposed to span the course of eight days.