Nasa’s two stuck astronauts headed back to Earth this morning after their nine month long journey into space. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams bid farewell to the International Space Station (ISS) – their home since last spring – departing aboard a SpaceX capsule alongside two other astronauts.

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.