Two US astronauts who were stranded for 286 days at the International Space Station (ISS) after their spacecraft malfunctioned, returned to Earth on Tuesday.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft left the ISS at 06:05 Belgian time and landed in the sea off Florida shortly before midnight Belgian time on Tuesday, with US astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams on board.
They were accompanied by US astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who had been sent to rescue them.
Williams and Wilmore were sent to space in June 2024 for an eight-day mission.
However, due to unexpected propulsion issues in their Boeing Starliner, they were stranded at the ISS for more than nine months.
