Kathmandu, March 18: NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are finally set to return home after spending nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The two were originally supposed to stay for just eight days as part of a test mission for Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, but technical issues kept them stranded in space.

Now, as part of a contingency plan by NASA, Wilmore and Williams will board a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule for their long-awaited return. They are scheduled to undock from the ISS at 1:05 a.m. ET (0505 GMT) on Tuesday, beginning a 17-hour journey back to Earth. The capsule is expected to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico at 5:57 p.m. ET the same day, with the landing location dependent on weather conditions.

The astronauts were originally part of a key test flight for Boeing’s Starliner in June last year. However, due to propulsion system failures, NASA deemed it too risky for them to return on the same spacecraft. Instead, they were integrated into NASA’s Crew-9 mission, turning their short test flight into a full space station rotation, where they conducted scientific research and station maintenance.

NASA’s decision to use SpaceX’s Crew Dragon for their return highlights ongoing challenges faced by Boeing’s Starliner program, which has struggled to compete with SpaceX in human spaceflight. Wilmore and Williams will be joined by NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who arrived on the ISS in September with two empty seats for the return journey.

After landing, the astronauts will be taken to NASA’s Johnson Space Center for post-mission medical checks.