Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore headed home in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule after problems with a Boeing vehicle set in motion a nine-month stay on the International Space Station.
The founder of SpaceX said President Trump had asked his company to return two astronauts aboard the space station to Earth “as soon as possible.” NASA said it would do that “as soon as practical.”
Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the astronauts who had an unexpectedly long stay in orbit, are set to head back to Earth just two days after a replacement crew docked at the space station.
After their flight was scrubbed on Wednesday, four astronauts successfully lifted off, which will allow two NASA astronauts to return to Earth after an unexpected extended stay in orbit.
An issue with a ground system that supports the Falcon 9 rocket led to a postponement of at least one day of the latest rotation of space station crews.