Commencing countdown, engines on … US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams finally departed from the International Space Station early Tuesday to begin their long-awaited journey back home after spending more than nine months stuck in space.

NASA’s two stuck astronauts headed back to Earth with SpaceX on Tuesday to close out a dramatic marathon mission that began with a bungled Boeing test flight more than nine months ago. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams bid farewell to the International Space Station — their home since last spring — departing aboard a SpaceX capsule alongside two other astronauts.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two NASA astronauts whose one-week stay on the International Space Station grew into a nine-month mission, are coming home. The duo are expected to splash down off the coast of Florida Tuesday just before 5 p.