NASA astronauts trapped in space for nine months finally leave the ISS and head back to Earth

The Crew Dragon spacecraft of the American aerospace company SpaceX with a crew of four people on board successfully undocked from the International Space Station and headed for Earth. A message about this appeared on the Telegram channel of the state corporation Roscosmos.

Image source: Roscosmos / Telegram

«Today at 08:05 Moscow time, the Crew Dragon manned spacecraft with the crew of the Crew-9 mission left the International Space Station. The spacecraft splashed down on March 19 at 00:57 Moscow time off the coast of Florida,” Roscosmos said in a statement.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft will deliver to Earth US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronauts Nick Hauge, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, as well as Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov. Hauge and Gorbunov have been on the orbital station since September last year.

Williams and Wilmore arrived at the ISS in early June last year aboard the Boeing Starliner. Their mission was originally intended to last a few days before returning to Earth. However, Starliner suffered from technical issues during the flight. Ultimately, it was decided that it was too dangerous to return the astronauts. As a result, Williams and Wilmore had to stay on the ISS for nine months, waiting for NASA to bring them back to Earth.