NASA removed two astronauts from its Crew-9 mission to allow for Williams and Wilmore to join the cohort, and return onboard the SpaceX Dragon − which carries four people at a time. The altered Crew-9 − only Hague and Gorbunov − launched aboard the SpaceX Dragon Freedom in late September.

NASA bumped up the return flight home plans for the SpaceX Crew-9 mission that includes a pair of astronauts who were left behind on the International Space Station by Boeing’s Starliner.

The BriefStranded NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are getting ready to return home to Earth with Crew-9 after an unexpected nine-month stay in space.The astronauts, along with Crew-9's Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov,