NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams departed the International Space Station early on Tuesday morning in a SpaceX capsule for a long-awaited trip back to Earth, nine months after their faulty Boeing Starliner craft upended what was to be a roughly week-long test mission.

The two test pilots came to NASA via the Navy. Butch Wilmore, 62, played high school and college football in his home state of Tennessee. Suni Williams, 59, grew up in Needham, Massachusetts, and was a competitive swimmer and distance runner.

A SpaceX capsule delivered four astronauts to the International Space Station early Sunday in a NASA crew-swap mission that will allow a pair of stuck astronauts to return home after nine months on the orbiting lab.