NASA Astronauts Williams, Wilmore Return to Earth After 9-Month Mission

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have successfully returned to Earth after a prolonged mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS) that lasted over nine months, originally planned for just eight days. They were forced to remain in space due to propulsion issues with Boeing's Starliner, which was deemed unsafe for reentry, leading NASA to reassign them to return in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The splashdown occurred off the coast of Florida, following a deorbit burn earlier in the morning. Accompanying them were astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The extended mission highlights the challenges faced in human spaceflight, particularly with new spacecraft technology. Their return marks the end of a significant chapter in NASA's commercial crew program, as Crew-10 has now replaced them on the ISS.