Nasa Astronauts Head Home On Spacex Capsule

Wilmore and Williams, two veteran Nasa astronauts and retired US navy test pilots, strapped inside their Crew Dragon spacecraft along with two other astronauts and undocked from the orbiting laboratory at 7.05am SAST, embarking on a 17-hour trip to Earth.

The four-person crew, formally part of Nasas Crew-9 astronaut rotation mission, is scheduled for a splashdown off Floridas coast later on Tuesday at 11.57pm SAST.

Crew-9 is going home, said commander Nick Hague from inside the capsule as it slowly backed up and away from the station for what a Nasa official described on the live webcast of the event as the trip downhill.

Hague said it was a privilege to call the station home as part of an international effort for the benefit of humanity. The Nasa official said the weather conditions for the splashdown were expected to be pristine.

Dressed in re-entry suits, boots and helmets, the astronauts were seen earlier on Nasas live footage laughing, hugging and posing for photos with their colleagues from the station shortly before they were shut into the capsule for two hours of final pressure, communications and seal tests.