The space saga of Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore is finally coming to an end.
While the former has insisted the pair of NASA astronauts aren't stranded aboard the International Space Station, the fact their eight-day mission has turned into a 278-day one (and counting) has us all feeling for them.
Capturing the attention of the world and even being used as political pawns by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the dynamic duo has barely been out of the news since their Boeing Crew Flight Test starliner malfunctioned and had to be sent back to Earth without them.
The POTUS had called on Musk to go and 'rescue' Williams and Wilmore, but finally, NASA has confirmed the date they should be back on Earth.
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Although the pair will have to go through a brutal regime of rehab, we're sure they'll be more than happy to have finally left the confines of the ISS.
As reported by Space.com, NASA has cleared the Crew-10 relief crew that will launch inside the SpaceX Dragon on March 12.
NASA officials say that Williams and Wilmore should return to Earth on March 16, by which point, they'll have been in space for 283 days.
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While the empty Starliner headed back in September 2024, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov flew as part of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission with two empty seasons on their Dragon for Williams and Wilmore. All four will fly back once the relief crew reaches the ISS.
ISS program manager Dana Weigel explained: "When we looked at the situation at the time, we had a Crew-9 launch in front of us. It made sense to take the opportunity to bring Crew-9 up with just two seats and have Butch and Suni fill in, and do the rest of the long-duration mission.
Crew-10 will take off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center for a mission expected to last six months.
This crew is commanded and piloted by NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, who are joined by mission specialists JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.
These four were due to fly on SpaceX's brand-new Dragon, but with pressure mounting to bring back Williams and Wilmore, they're now flying on the veteran Endurance capsule that's already been to the ISS and back three times.
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Despite pressure from Trump, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stitch said it's typical for missions to face delays: "We're always looking and refining the manifest. We started looking at that schedule, and at that time, early this year, late January, that's when we finally decided we'll move to [Endurance]."
Endurance and Crew-10 are due to launch at 7:48 p.m. EDT on March 12 and reach the ISS about 14 hours later.
While Williams and Wilmore's stay is still a way off the 437 days that Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov spent aboard the Mir Space Station in 1994 and 1995, they’ll undoubtedly be glad to be back with their loved ones.