In June last year, two astronauts who had been stranded for an extended period due to unexpected issues while testing Boeing's space capsule 'Starliner' heading to the International Space Station (ISS) returned to Earth after about nine months.
On the 18th (local time), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and SpaceX live-streamed the Dragon capsule, carrying astronauts Bucci Wilmore and Sunie Williams, returning to Earth from the ISS.
Around 1:05 a.m. that day, the Dragon capsule departed the ISS carrying four astronauts and splashed down in the ocean off Florida at about 5:58 p.m. after approximately 17 hours. The capsule deployed its parachutes about four minutes before landing and descended slowly before gently touching the water.
Among the four astronauts returning to Earth that day, Wilmore and Williams from NASA left Earth on June 5 last year on a journey to stay in space for about eight days and returned after 287 days. They went to the ISS for testing aboard Boeing's space capsule Starliner, but were stranded at the ISS due to several defects discovered in the Starliner.
NASA, citing safety issues for the astronauts, did not send them back aboard the Starliner and returned them in an unmanned state, coordinating their return with NASA's regular ISS astronaut rotation and replacement missions (Crew-9 and Crew-10).
Consequently, their return schedule was delayed by several months, and with the Crew-10 astronauts from the ISS mission replacement team recently boarding the ISS, they were finally able to leave the ISS and return to Earth.