Stranded US astronauts to return to Earth on tomorrow: NASA

Two US astronauts stuck for more than nine months on the International Space Station will return to Earth tomorrow night. 

 

In a statement, NASA said that Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore will be transported home with another American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon craft. 

 

The stranded duo have been on the ISS since June after the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they were testing on its maiden crewed voyage suffered propulsion issues and was deemed unfit to fly



them back to Earth. 

 

NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will also return on the Dragon capsule. 

For Wilmore and Williams, it will mark the end of an ordeal that has seen them stuck for nine months after what was meant to have been a days-long roundtrip. 

 

Their prolonged stay was significantly longer than the standard ISS rotation for astronauts of roughly six months.