NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have spent nine months on the International Space Station, are set to begin their journey back to Earth early Tuesday morning following the arrival of a replacement crew. The veteran astronauts, along with two others, will undock from the ISS at 1:05 a.m. ET on Tuesday for a 17-hour trip back to Earth, with splashdown expected off the Florida coast at 5:57 p.m. ET. Wilmore and Williams had initially flown Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on a test flight in June, but due to propulsion issues, NASA decided to include them in the Crew-9 mission instead of returning them home. Joining them on the return trip will be NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who arrived at the ISS in September on a Crew Dragon craft. Originally planned for Wednesday night, the return was rescheduled to Tuesday due to unfavorable weather conditions later in the week.
