NASA astronauts ‘Butch and Suni’ return to Earth after drawn-out mission in space

Their return caps a protracted space mission that was fraught with uncertainty and technical troubles, turning a rare instance of NASA’s contingency planning—and the latest failures of Starliner—into a global and political spectacle.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams returned to Earth in a SpaceX capsule on Tuesday with a soft splashdown off Florida’s coast, nine months after their faulty Boeing (BA.N) Starliner craft upended what was to be a week-long stay on the International Space Station.