NASA removed two astronauts from its Crew-9 mission to allow for Williams and Wilmore to join the cohort, and return onboard the SpaceX Dragon − which carries four people at a time. The altered Crew-9 − only Hague and Gorbunov − launched aboard the SpaceX Dragon Freedom in late September.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two NASA astronauts whose one-week stay on the International Space Station grew into a nine-month mission, are coming home. The duo are expected to splash down off the coast of Florida Tuesday just before 5 p.

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore departed the International Space Station on March 18, ending an unexpectedly long space mission.