Two NASA astronauts who have been stuck in space for over nine months are finally about to come home.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX crew-10 launched into space on Friday to bring home two NASA astronauts who have been stuck at the ISS since June 6.

They are set to return to Earth after a new crew to replace them along with two other astronauts reached the International Space Station (ISS) over the weekend.

Fox News reports: The four-person Crew-10 carried by a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on early Sunday met up with the ISS, where NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams have been living since their planned roughly week-long mission in June 2024 turned into a much longer one. 

NASA eyes Tuesday homecoming for Crew-9, including Wilmore and Williams

NASA said it is aiming for Crew-9, which is comprised of NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov in addition to Wilmore and Williams, to make its return to Earth on Tuesday evening. 

That planned arrival gives “the space station crew members time to complete handover duties, while providing operational flexibility ahead of less favorable weather conditions expected for later in the week,” according to the U.S. space agency.

A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is slated to transport them back to Earth. That spacecraft has been at the ISS since it carried Hague and Gorbunov in late September. 

SpaceX, the aerospace company helmed by Elon Musk, said it plans for the spacecraft to “conduct multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison the trunk, and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown” near Florida on Tuesday evening after it undocks from the ISS and gets far enough away from the orbiting research station.

The ISS circles around Earth from some 250 miles up. 

Return will mark end of nine-month-long stint in space for Wilmore, Williams

Provided the Dragon’s departure doesn’t get delayed by weather or other circumstances, Crew-9’s homecoming would mark the end of an over nine-month-long stint in space for Wilmore and Williams, significantly longer than first planned.