Stranded astronauts prepare for long-awaited return to Earth

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are preparing to interaction backmost down connected Earth arsenic aboriginal arsenic Tuesday.

The 2 person been connected the International Space Station since June. Their ngo was lone scheduled to past 1 week aft the motorboat of Boeing's archetypal astronaut flight, but they were stuck successful abstraction aft issues forced NASA to bring the Boeing Starliner backmost empty.

Wilmore, Williams, Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov were primitively scheduled to splash down disconnected Florida's seashore connected Wednesday. Now, owed to unfavorable weather, NASA is targeting undocking from the abstraction presumption astatine 1:05 a.m. ET Tuesday with splashdown conscionable earlier 6 p.m. the aforesaid day.

"The updated instrumentality people continues to let the abstraction presumption unit members clip to implicit handover duties portion providing operational flexibility up of little favorable upwind conditions expected for aboriginal successful the week," NASA said successful a statement.

'ALIEN' ENCOUNTER: ISS CREW MEMBER PLAYS JOKE AS SPACEX TEAM ARRIVES

This representation made from video by NASA shows astronauts greeting each different aft a SpaceX capsule docked with the International Space Station connected Sunday, March 16, 2025. Top enactment from left: Nick Hague, Alexander Gorbunov, Suni Williams, Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner. Bottom enactment from left: Butch Wilmore, Takuya Onishi, Anne McClain, Kirill Peskov, Nichole Ayers and Don Pettit. (NASA)

A Crew-9 media league is scheduled to instrumentality spot astatine 7:30 p.m., aft their return.

Early Sunday morning, Crew-10 arrived astatine the abstraction station, bringing the full fig of astronauts connected committee to 11. 

Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner took the accidental to invited them portion donning an alien disguise successful what a NASA spokesperson called a "lighthearted moment."

NASA'S STUCK ASTRONAUTS WELCOME REPLACEMENTS WHO ARRIVED TO SPACE STATION ON SPACEX CAPSULE

Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner wears an alien disguise successful the larboard during the accomplishment of Crew-10 to the International Space Station connected March 16, 2025. (NASA/SPACEX)

"It was a fantastic day. Great to spot our friends arrive," Williams told Mission Control. 

The 4 caller arrivals — NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov — are scheduled to enactment connected the presumption for astir six months.

ELON MUSK'S SPACEX LAUNCHES CREW TO RESCUE STUCK NASA ASTRONAUTS FROM ISS

In this photograph provided by NASA, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams inspect information hardware aboard the International Space Station connected Aug. 9, 2024. (NASA)

The stuck astronauts person been doing technological probe and conducting regular maintenance.

Williams told reporters earlier this period that she was looking guardant to returning location to spot her household and 2 dogs.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP