WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Four members of NASA's Crew-9 mission, including a pair of US astronauts who had been held up on the International Space Station since June, have finally begun their return journey to earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were forced to stay back in the space station for nine months, along with another NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, undocked from the space-facing port of International Space Station's Harmony module at 1:05 a.m. Tuesday, NASA said in its latest update.
Dragon is scheduled to splash down around 5:57 P.M. ET off the coast of Florida, after which crew members will be recovered.
It will be followed by a media conference by top NASA and SpaceX officials.
Wilmore and Williams have been living and working aboard the station since docking on June 6, contributing to the expedition crew's research and maintenance activities, while helping ground teams collect critical data for long-duration Starliner flights to the orbiting complex.
The astronauts were supposed to return to earth on June 14, but after encountering technical issues, it was delayed.
Upon arrival, NASA and Boeing identified a number of helium leaks and thruster issues on the Starliner, forcing the astronauts to stay on the ISS.
By September, issues with the spacecraft led to NASA opting to send the vessel back to earth unmanned and leaving Wilmore and Williams waiting for the ideal situation.
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