It may have been a trip that was out of this world, but it is safe to say NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are ready to come home.
That’s because they have been on the International Space Station since June 24. They were only supposed to be there a week, but are still there after nine months.
On Sunday, their replacements arrived on a SpaceX capsule that will enable the two to return to earth, per Fox Business.
The two became stuck in space when an issue with hydraulics forced them to remain in space.
The Crew-10 astronauts’ SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule arrived at the station at 12:04 a.m. Sunday; it launched at 7:03 p.m. Friday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The four replacements — NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov — will stay for about six months.
Wilmore and Williams will say goodbye to the ISS Wednesday.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will also be on board. The quartet is expected to splash down off Florida’s coast.
Hague and Gorbunov arrived on the ISS in September.
Wilmore and Williams have been doing scientific research and conducting routine maintenance during their time on the ISS.
Williams told reporters earlier this month that she was looking forward to returning home.
“It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us,” Williams said.
