After an unexpected delay, Sunita Williams and her companion, Butch Wilmore, are finally returning to Earth after spending nine months in space. Originally scheduled to return after eight days, their return was delayed due to some technical issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft. NASA and SpaceX worked together to bring them back safely on a Falcon 9 rocket as part of NASA’s Crew-10 mission.

The Falcon 9 rocket was successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center at 4:33 AM IST. The Crew-10 astronauts, including NASA’s Anne McClain, Nicole Ayers, Japan’s Takuyaki Onishi, and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, will be the new residents of the International Space Station. Once all procedures are complete, Sunita and Butch will return on the Crew-9 capsule, expected to leave on March 19. However, after nearly nine months in space, Sunita and Butch will require up to four months to fully adjust and recover from the physical changes their bodies underwent in the zero-gravity environment.