Two NASA astronauts who have spent the last nine months unexpectedly stranded in the bleak emptiness of space have safely returned to Earth – landing off the coast of Florida after a 17-hour rescue mission to bring them home.

Butch Wilmore, 62, and Suni Williams, 59, were only meant to be on board the International Space Station for eight days in June of last year as part of a test flight of Boeing’s Starline. However, multiple issues with the spacecraft during their journey resulted in their return being cancelled by NASA.

Instead, the astronauts were eventually transferred to Elon Musk’s SpaceX with plans to bring them back by February. However, issues with the SpaceX return capsule caused the pilots to endure another month floating in space.

Yet by Sunday, March 16, their rescue crew had arrived and the stranded spacegoers could begin their 17-hour journey back to terra firma. Both Wilmore and William splashed down off the coast of Florida at around 6pm local time, alongside NASA’s Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who had also been aboard the International Space Station.

This marked the end of their mammoth 286 days in space, in which they circled the Earth 4,576 times. As their capsule landed safely in the ocean, SpaceX’s mission control said to the astronauts over the radio: “On behalf of SpaceX, welcome home.”

Capsule Commander Nick Hague said with relief: “What a ride, I see a capsule full of grins. Ear to ear.” Within half an hour, the capsule was hauled onto the deck of a ship and the astronauts who had been “stuck” in space were pictured emerging in their space suits.

Wilmore and Williams’ situation caught the world’s attention, with the horror movie plot of two people “stranded” in space with no idea of when they would be returning. The question of when they would be able to come home reached the highest levels of the US government, with President Trump claiming to have expedited their return after Biden has declined SpaceX’s help for “political reasons.”

In a February Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, President Trump said: “They didn’t have the go-ahead with Biden. He was going to leave them in space. I think he was going to leave them in space. … He didn’t want the publicity. Can you believe it?”

This has been disputed by both former President Biden and the NASA astronauts themselves, who have also argued against the idea of them being stuck or stranded. Instead, they have been fruitfully spending their time carrying out work on the International Space Station.

During their nine months, the pair became full ISS workers, conducting experiments, fixing equipment, and conducting 62 hours of space walks. Speaking to CNN, Butch Wilmore said: “We don’t feel abandoned. We don’t feel stuck. We don’t feel stranded.

“I understand why others may think that. We come prepared. We come committed. That is what your human space flight program is. It prepares for any and all contingencies that we can conceive of, and we prepare for those.”

When asked about the possible political motivations behind their delayed return, Wilmore responded: “From my standpoint, politics is not playing into this at all. From our standpoint, I think that they would agree, we came up prepared to stay long, even though we plan to stay short.”