Two NASA astronauts, Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore, are hours away from returning to Earth after spending nine months stranded aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The two astronauts, both veteran NASA-trained space travelers, are 59-year-old Williams and 62-year-old Wilmore.

Williams, a retired U.S. Navy officer, was born in Euclid, Ohio, and considers Needham, Massachusetts, her home. She is the current commander of the ISS and joined NASA in 1998. Over the course of her career, Williams has spent 322 days in space and completed nine spacewalks. She previously held the record for the most spacewalks by a female astronaut until Peggy Whitson surpassed her in 2017, having completed 10 spacewalks. Williams graduated from Needham High School in 1983, earned a B.S. in Physical Science from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1987, and obtained her M.S. in Engineering Management from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1995. Williams, who practices Hinduism, brought a copy of the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita to the ISS in December 2006.

Wilmore, who first flew to space in 2009 aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, had logged 178 days in space before the Boeing Starliner mission. He has served as a flight engineer and commander on previous ISS missions, where he conducted research on plant growth in space, the effects of microgravity on the human body, and environmental changes on Earth.

The astronauts will return to Earth aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which has been docked at the ISS since September 2024. This capsule originally brought NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian astronaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the ISS, with two empty seats reserved for the return of Wilmore and Williams.