Commencing countdown, engines on … US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams finally left the International Space Station on Tuesday to start their anticipated return journey home. They had been in space for over nine months before their departure. Wilmore, aged 62, and Williams, aged 59, are on board SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Capsule named “Freedom,” heading back to Earth with an expected splashdown in Florida around 5:57 p.m. as per NASA’s schedule. The two astronauts, who were initially planned for a 10-day mission last summer, are heading back with Nick Hague from the US and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov at the end of their time on the Crew 9 mission. Wilmore and Williams have been stuck on the ISS since last June when their Boeing Starliner capsule suffered leaks and mechanical issues, forcing NASA to return the craft without anyone onboard. The episode left Boeing’s commercial spaceflight ambitions tumbling, with SpaceX serving as the only backup available to help bring the astronauts home. The duo have since had to wait to hitch a ride on Hague and Gorbunov’s return shuttle, which was scheduled to launch only after SpaceX’s Crew 10 arrived over the weekend to relieve them of their duties at the ISS. Elon Musk has claimed that plans to bring Wilmore and Williams back earlier were shelved by former President Joe Biden and that the mission had been marred by political mudslinging. Biden administration officials, however, have denied all allegations that they left the astronauts in space for political reasons. Because of the delays, Wilmore and Williams will have spent about 285 days in space, placing sixth among NASA’s single spaceflight record holders just behind Peggy Whitson, who spent 289 days in space. Frank Rubio maintains the current record at 371 days after he experienced his own issues when Russia’s Soyuz capsule sprang a leak, leaving him stranded at the ISS back in 2022.