The return journey of two astronauts who were stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for 9 months has begun. The two astronauts departed from the station to return to Earth aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) live-streamed the departure of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the ISS, who had been trapped in space for months. NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov are accompanying Wilmore and Williams on the return journey, which is estimated to last about 17 hours. If weather conditions permit, the capsule carrying the two astronauts is expected to land off the coast of the state of Florida in the evening. Williams and Wilmore were sent to the ISS on June 5, 2024, for a week-long test flight with Boeing’s new Starliner capsule. However, due to a technical malfunction in the Starliner, the return date of the two astronauts was postponed, and NASA gave the directive for the capsule to return empty. The new crew that will replace Wilmore and Williams, who have been stranded on the ISS for about 9 months, arrived at the ISS with SpaceX’s Dragon capsule on March 16. The Crew-10 team, consisting of members from the United States, Japan, and Russia, received training from Wilmore and Williams about the ISS for several days. The Crew-10 team includes NASA mission commander Anne McClain, mission pilot Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Kirill Peskov from the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).