Wilmore and Williams flew to the orbital lab in June last year, on what was supposed to be a days-long roundtrip to test out Boeing’s Starliner on its first crewed flight.
But the spaceship developed propulsion problems and was deemed unfit to fly them back, instead returning empty.
Ex-Navy pilots Wilmore and Williams, 62 and 59 respectively, were reassigned to the NASA-SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which saw a Dragon spacecraft fly to the ISS last September with a team of two, rather than the usual four, to make room for the “stranded” pair.
Then, early on Sunday, a relief team called Crew-10 docked with the station, their arrival met with broad smiles and hugs as they floated through the hatch.
Crew-10’s arrival cleared the way for Wilmore and Williams to depart, along with Hague and Gorbunov.
After big hugs from the crew remaining on the ISS, the quartet entered the capsule and closed its hatch on Tuesday.
“Colleagues and dear friends who remain on the station … we’ll be waiting for you. Crew-9 is going home”, Hague said.
