NASA’s Sunita Williams, Barry Wilmore return to Earth after 9 months stuck in space

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore returned to Earth on Tuesday after being stuck in the International Space Station for more than nine months.

Nick Hague, a fellow astronaut from the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov also arrived back on Earth along with them.

Williams and Wilmore were sent to the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule on June 5 for what was planned to be an eight-day test mission.

However, several problems arose with the propulsion system of the capsule, which forced NASA to fold them into its crew rotation schedule and return them on a SpaceX craft.

As a result, Williams and Wilmore spent 286 days in space instead of the eight days that had been planned.

Hague and Gorbunov were launched to the space station in September with two empty seats on their capsule reserved for Williams and Wilmore. The four astronauts were part of the Crew-9 mission, a routine staff rotation jointly operated by NASA and SpaceX.

They departed the International Space Station on Tuesday aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico in the evening.

“We are thrilled to have Suni, Butch, Nick, and Aleksandr home after their months-long mission conducting vital science, technology demonstrations, and maintenance...

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