Theirs has been one of the most controversial and high-profile stays on the station after the Boeing Starliner spacecraft they arrived on was deemed unsafe to be manned back to Earth.
But the veteran US astronauts have remained sanguine about their fate.
“That’s what your nation’s human spaceflight program’s all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies.
Now they are returning home.
Nasa astronaut Butch Wilmore is returning to Earth (Photo:John Raoux/AP)
He has Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in electrical engineering from Tennessee Tech and a Master of Science in Aviation Systems from the University of Tennessee.
As a US Navy pilot, he clocked up more than 8,000 hours flight time and served in Bosnia and Iraq before he was selected by Nasa in 2000 for astronaut training.
Who is Suni Williams?
Nasa astronaut Suni Williams is also coming returning to Earth (Photo: John Raoux/AP)Sunita “Suni” Williams is also a veteran Nasa astronaut, a commander of the ISS and a retired US Navy officer from Needham, Massachusetts.
The 59-year-old has flown three space flights to the ISS in 2006, 2012 and 2024. She is the first person to run a marathon in space and has clocked up more than 62 hours in space walks.
She began her astronaut training at the Johnson Space Centre in 1998.
Astronauts Wilmore and Williams had originally flown to the ISS on board Boeing’s Starliner for its maiden manned flight in June 2024.
When they docked at the station in space, it became apparent there were issues with the thrusters and leaks of the helium gas on the Starliner.
Then, at the end of August last year, it was decided the Starliner would return to Earth unmanned for safety reasons which it did on 7 September.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams sitting inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in preparation for undocking from the ISS to begin their return to Earth (Photo: Nasa/Reuters)And just after 5am (GMT) on Tuesday 18 March the capsule left the ISS with Williams, Wilmore and two other astronauts on board ready to make the 17-hour flight back to Earth.
What did Wilmore and Williams do during their nine months in space?
During their nine-month stay at the station, Wilmore and Williams have been carrying out scientific research and conducting routine maintenance with the station’s other five astronauts.
Research has included a study of how liquids and gases flow in space and an experiment to find out if tiny life forms escape from the ISS through vents and if so, can they survive in space.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the International Space Station (Photo: Nasa/AP)Williams also assumed command of the space station in September, when Russian cosmonaut Olog Kononenko went home.
When they splashdown, Wilmore and Williams will have logged 286 days in space, far longer than the average six-month ISS mission but short of the 371 day record held by Frank Rubio.
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