After an unplanned nine-month stay on board the International Space Station, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have finally started their trip back home.

Williams and Wilmore had been on the Boeing Starliner mission to space in June which was supposed to last about a week, but after issues with the spacecraft, they had to remain on the ISS for an extended time.

The pair, along with NASA’s Nick Hague and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov from Russia’s Roscosmos agency left the ISS at 1:05 a.m. ET.

Hague said “Crew-9 is going home,” early this morning to mark the moment that Crew Dragon Freedom fully detached from the ISS.

There have been several thruster burns to get the spacecraft into position for reentry. At the same time, the four astronauts will get some rest as they can.

A deorbit burn will happen around 5:11 p.m. ET.

They will splash down later on Tuesday afternoon or early evening off the coast of Florida. Splashdown is expected to happen as soon as 5:57 p.m. ET, but may change depending on weather and the progress of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

Once it hits the water, SpaceX rescue ship will pull the capsule from the water and Williams and Wilmore will exit.

They will be checked out by doctors, a routine procedure for astronauts. They are expected to eventually return to Johnson Space Center in Houston.

While the two astronauts were in space for a lot longer than planned, Williams said that it was harder on their families than what she and Wilmore experienced.

“It’s been a roller coaster for them probably a little bit more so than for us,” Williams said. “We’re here. We have a mission. We’re just doing what we do every day. And you know, every day is interesting because we’re up in space, and it’s a lot of fun. I think the hardest part is having the folks on the ground have to not know exactly when we’re coming back.”

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