Two astronauts whose eight-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS) ended up as a nine-month odyssey embroiled in political propaganda are on their way back to Earth. READ MORE: https://www.thetimes.com/article/5b29ef43-0914-4df0-abfe-5f97cddaf2e7 Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, along with their Nasa colleague, Nick Hague, and a Russian cosmonaut, Aleksandr Gorbunov — known collectively as Crew 9 — undocked from the ISS aboard their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule at 1.05am EST (5am GMT) on Tuesday as it passed 261 miles above the Pacific Ocean. “For Wilmore and Williams, [it’s] the beginning of the end of a nine-and-a-half month mission,” announced Rob Navias, Nasa’s commentator at mission control in Houston, Texas. The adventure began for Wilmore, 62, and Williams, 59, on June 5 aboard a Boeing Starliner for what was meant to be an eight-day test flight to the ISS and back in order to certify the new spacecraft for routine operational service. When Starliner developed technical problems, Nasa managers decided to fly it home empty on safety grounds and extend the pair’s mission, assigning them to join colleagues on the ISS conducting science and technology research. Read the best of our journalism: https://www.thetimes.com/ Subscribe to The Times and The Sunday Times YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=timesonlinevideo Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timesandsundaytimes/ Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thetimes Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetimes/ #livestream #astronauts #spacex #nasa