Two NASA astronauts who have been stuck aboard the International Space Station since June 2024 are finally headed home—nine months after Boeing’s troubled Starliner capsule botched their originally planned week-long mission.

A SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts—including Starliner test pilots Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore—undocked from the ISS at 1:05 a.m. ET (5:05 a.m. GMT). Their return trip will take about 17 hours, with splashdown expected somewhere off the Florida coast around 6 p.m. ET, weather permitting.

Williams and Wilmore launched aboard Starliner on June 6, 2024, expecting a quick test of the capsule’s docking and operational systems. They were supposed to be home within ten days. Instead, technical failures and safety concerns forced NASA and Boeing to send Starliner back to Earth—empty—in September, leaving the two astronauts stranded as emergency stand-ins for crew members who were reassigned to other missions.

“We’ll miss you, but have a great journey home,” NASA astronaut Anne McClain called out as the capsule drifted away, 260 miles (418 km) above the Pacific.

Joining Williams and Wilmore aboard the Dragon capsule are American astronaut Nicholas Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

“Crew-9 is going home,” Hague said inside the capsule as it backed away from the station. A NASA official on the live webcast described the descent as “the trip downhill.”

NASA expects ideal splashdown conditions, with clear skies and calm seas.

Earlier in the day, live footage showed the astronauts suited up for reentry—helmets on, boots secured—laughing and hugging their ISS colleagues before climbing into the capsule for final pressure, communications, and seal tests.

Their extended stay aboard the ISS has, perhaps unsurprisingly, turned into a political talking point. SpaceX founder Elon Musk, a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, insisted—without evidence—that the Biden administration “abandoned” the astronauts in space. Trump himself spun last week’s routine crew rotation as a “special rescue mission” orchestrated by the White House.

Wilmore, caught in the middle, told reporters earlier this month that Musk had indeed offered to bring them home last year, but admitted, “We have no information on … what was offered, what was not offered, who it was offered to, how that process went.” In February, he had been more direct: “We don’t feel abandoned, we don’t feel stuck, we don’t feel stranded. I understand why others may think that … but let’s change the rhetoric to ‘prepared and committed.’ That’s what we prefer.”

Back on Earth, Starliner’s future is uncertain. NASA and Boeing engineers have been combing over the spacecraft at its White Sands, New Mexico, base, investigating the thruster malfunctions and helium leaks that crippled its maiden crewed flight. Aviation Week reports that Starliner is unlikely to fly again in 2025, though Boeing maintains confidence in the capsule and is working toward renewed flight certification.

NASA will provide live coverage of the final descent and splashdown on NASA TV and its streaming platform NASA+, followed by a press conference.