Nasa astronauts SpaceX: How to watch Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams return to Earth after being stranded on International Space Station since June

Nasa astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been on the International Space Station since June - having been scheduled only to be there for eight days - and have not been able to come back because of technical issues.

They were taking part in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft’s first crewed test flight. While the craft arrived at the ISS OK, it was deemed to dangerous to take them back to Earth, so Starliner returned home empty. A SpaceX capsule was sent up in September with two astronauts instead of four, so there was room for the Nasa pair - but the Space X craft was on a six-month mission, and so is only returning home today.

The capsule undocked before dawn and is expected to make splashdown off the Florida coast later today, permitting.

Wilmore and Williams will return with Nasa’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Their return will be broadcast by Nasa on its Nasa+ live stream which can be found here.

It’s expected by that coverage will start at 8.45pm GMT (4.45pm EST in the US, which is four hours behind the UK). The deorbit burn is at the moment anticipated to be 9.11pm GMT (5.11pm EST), and the splashdown will be about 9.57pm GMT (5.57pm EST)

A Nasa statement said: “Nasa and SpaceX met on Sunday to assess weather and splashdown conditions off Florida’s coast for the return of the agency’s Crew-9 mission from the International Space Station. Mission managers are targeting an earlier Crew-9 return opportunity based on favorable conditions forecasted for the evening of Tuesday, March 18. The updated return target continues to allow the space station crew members time to complete handover duties while providing operational flexibility ahead of less favorable weather conditions expected for later in the week.”

Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams quickly transitioned from guests to full-fledged station crew members, conducting experiments, fixing equipment and even spacewalking together.

With 62 hours over nine spacewalks, Ms Williams set a new record: the most time spent spacewalking over a career among female astronauts. Both had lived on the orbiting lab before and knew the ropes, and brushed up on their station training before rocketing away.

Ms Williams became the station’s commander three months into their stay and held the post until earlier this month.

Their mission took an unexpected twist in late January when US President Donald Trump asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to accelerate the astronauts’ return and blamed the delay on the Biden administration.

The replacement crew’s brand new SpaceX capsule still was not ready to fly, so SpaceX subbed it with a used one, hurrying things along by at least a few weeks.

Even in the middle of the political storm, Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams continued to maintain an even keel at public appearances from orbit, casting no blame and insisting they supported Nasa’s decisions from the start.

Nasa hired SpaceX and Boeing after the shuttle programme ended, in order to have two competing US companies for transporting astronauts to and from the space station until it is abandoned in 2030 and steered to a fiery re-entry.

By then, it will have been up there for more than three decades; the plan is to replace it with privately run stations so Nasa can focus on moon and Mars expeditions.

Both retired Navy captains, Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams stressed they didn’t mind spending more time in space — a prolonged deployment reminiscent of their military days.

But they acknowledged it was tough on their families. Mr Wilmore, 62, missed most of his younger daughter’s senior year of high school; his older daughter is in college. Ms Williams, 59, had to settle for internet calls from space to her mother. They will have to wait until they are off the SpaceX recovery ship and flown to Houston before the long-awaited reunion with their loved ones.