Stranded Nasa astronauts finally on their way home

Two Nasa astronauts who have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since last summer are finally on their way back to Earth on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams first went to the ISS in June 2024 and were expected to stay at the ISS for just eight days, but technical issues with their spacecraft meant they were unable to return to Earth.

They have been on the ISS for just over nine months or 286 days !

Nasa say the journey will take around 17 hours and they are expected to splash down back on Earth just before 22:00 GMT on Tuesday evening.

Yesterday a The SpaceX rocket flew four new crew members to the ISS, including US, Japanese and Russian astronauts to replace the two astronauts.

Suni, Butch and two other ISS crew members, Nasa astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov are now on their way home.

Dana Weigel, manager of the ISS programme, explained that the astronauts had been preparing for their handover to the new ISS crew this past week.

"Butch rang a ceremonial bell as Suni handed over command to cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin," she said.

Why are the astronauts stranded in space?

While stuck in space they have been helping ongoing missions at the ISS including taking part in spacewalks to look after the station

Butch and Suni arrived at the ISS at the start of June 2024.

They went to test an experimental spacecraft called Starliner, which was built by the aerospace firm Boeing, a rival to SpaceX.

However, during both the launch and the docking onto the ISS, the Boeing aircraft experienced problems.

Because of this, it was decided that it would be safer for Butch and Suni to stay at the space station and return during a scheduled crew rotation.

This meant their stay turned from a few days to several months.