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Stranded NASA astronauts expected to return to Earth on Tuesday

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will return to Earth aboard SpaceX's Dragon capsule.
In this photo provided by NASA, Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams pose for a portrait inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station's Harmony module and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 13, 2024.
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U.S. astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams could be back on Earth as soon as Tuesday.

The pair has been in space for nearly 300 days due to issues with the spacecraft they arrived in: Boeing's Starliner. They were originally scheduled to be in space for just over a week but have remained stranded because of technical problems with the capsule.

In August, NASA decided to bring Starliner back to Earth without Wilmore and Williams. The unmanned capsule returned a few weeks later.

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With Starliner no longer available, SpaceX stepped in to bring the astronauts home.

SpaceX Dragon Crew-10 launched from Kennedy Space Center on Friday and docked at the International Space Station on Sunday. Wilmore and Williams will return to Earth aboard that spacecraft.

NASA said their return journey will begin Monday at 10:45 p.m. Eastern, when preparations to close the Dragon hatch are scheduled to start. The capsule is scheduled to undock from the ISS about two hours later. Splashdown is expected off the coast of Florida around 6 p.m. Eastern.

In addition to Wilmore and Williams, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will also be aboard the return flight.

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