Who are Nasa astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, and why were they stuck in space? ...Middle East

Nasa astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have finally left the International Space Station (ISS) after an unexpected nine-month stay.

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.

An eight-day mission to test the capsule turned into months on board the station after a series of delays.

But the veteran US astronauts have remained sanguine about their fate.

Wilmore said earlier this month: “We came prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short.

“That’s what your nation’s human spaceflight program’s all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies.

“And we did that.”

Now they are returning home.

Nasa astronaut Butch Wilmore is returning to Earth (Photo:John Raoux/AP)

Barry “Butch” Wilmore is a veteran Nasa astronaut and US Navy test pilot from Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

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.

The 62-year-old has flown three space flights to the ISS in 2009, 2014 and 2024.

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.

Married with two daughters, he lives with his family in Houston, Texas.

Who is Suni Williams?

Sunita “Suni” Williams is also a veteran Nasa astronaut, a commander of the ISS and a retired US Navy officer from Needham, Massachusetts.

She has a Bachelor of Science degree in physical science from the United States Naval Academy and a Master of Science degree in engineering management from Florida Institute of Technology.

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.

As a US Naval aviator, she has amassed more than 3,000 flight hours in more than 30 aircraft types and was deployed to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.

She began her astronaut training at the Johnson Space Centre in 1998.

Married to federal marshall Michael J Williams, the couple live in Houston, Texas with their dogs.

Astronauts Wilmore and Williams had originally flown to the ISS on board Boeing’s Starliner for its maiden manned flight in June 2024.

There had been false starts before the spacecraft even left Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on 5 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.

The pair, who were meant to spend eight days at the space station, had their return home initially delayed a few weeks while repairs were carried out on the capsule.

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)

Finally on 14 March this year, the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule arrived at the ISS with four new astronauts as part of crew rotation at the station.

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.

They were due to splashdown off Florida’s coast at around 10pm (GMT) on Tuesday.

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.

The ISS is a football field-sized research lab, which has been manned continuously by international crews of astronauts for nearly 25 years.

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.

Williams has performed two six-hour spacewalks for maintenance outside the ISS, including one with Wilmore, while on board.

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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