The pair were due to be on the ISS for only eight days, but because of technical issues with the experimental spacecraft they arrived on, they have been there for more than nine months.

The astronauts are due to begin their journey back to Earth later this week. Steve Stich, manager of Nasa’s commercial crew programme said he was delighted at the prospect.

“Butch and Suni have done a great job and we are excited to bring them back,” he said.

Live footage showed the SpaceX Crew Dragon docking with the ISS and opening a hatch. Shortly after 0545 GMT, the astronauts embraced and hugged their counterparts in zero gravity.

The astronauts, along with their ISS workmates, Nasa’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, will be relieved by four astronauts, from Russia, Japan and two from the US.

There will be a two-day handover after which the old crew are due to begin their journey back to Earth. But there could be a small further delay, as they wait for conditions on Earth to be right for a safe re-entry of the returning capsule, according to Dana Weigel, manager, of the ISS programme.

“Weather always has to cooperate, so we’ll take our time over that if it is not favourable,” she told reporters.

Ms Weigel explained that the astronauts had begun getting ready for the handover last week.

“Butch rang a ceremonial bell as Suni handed over command to cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin,” she said.

The astronauts have consistently said that they have been happy to be on board the space station, with Suni Williams describing it as her “happy place”. But Dr Simeon Barber, of the Open University, told BBC News that there would likely have been a personal cost.

“When you are sent on a work trip that is supposed to last a week, you are not expecting it to take the best part of a year,” he said.

“This extended stay in space will have disrupted family life, things will have happened back home that they will have missed out on, so there will have been a period of upheaval.”

Butch and Suni arrived at the ISS at the beginning of June 2024 to test an experimental spacecraft called Starliner, which was built by the aerospace firm Boeing, a rival to SpaceX.

Nasa decided that it would not take even a small risk in bringing back Butch and Suni on Starliner, when they had the option of returning them on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. Nasa decided the best option was to do this during a scheduled crew rotation, even though it would mean keeping the astronauts on the space station for several months.

Boeing has consistently argued that it would have been safe to bring Butch and Suni back on Starliner, and were unhappy about the decision to use a rival’s capsule instead, which will be “embarrassing” for Boeing, according to Dr Barber.

“It’s not a good look for Boeing to see astronauts they took into space come back in a competitor’s craft.”

Both President Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have said that Butch and Suni could have been brought home sooner, most recently in a joint interview with Fox News in February.

President Trump states: “They got left in space.”

When the interviewer, Sean Hannity, elaborates, saying “They were supposed to be there eight days. They’re there almost 300,” Mr Trump responds with one word: “Biden.” Mr Musk follows up asserting: “They were left up there for political reasons.”

The assertion is denied by Nasa’s Steve Stitch.

“We looked at a wide range of options and worked hand-in-hand with SpaceX to look at what was the best thing to do overall and when we laid all that out the best option was to have the one we are embarking upon,” he said.

That decision was supported by Dr Libby Jackson, who is head of space at the Science Museum in London and worked at Europe’s control centre for the ISS.

“Butch and Suni’s wellbeing would always have been at the very forefront of everybody’s minds as the decisions were being made for how best to deal with the circumstances that they were presented,” she said.

“Nasa made those decisions based on good technical reasons, on programmatic reasons, and found the right solution that has kept Butch and Suni safe.

“I really look forward to seeing them return to Earth, safe and sound, along with the rest of their crewmates.”

Human landings could begin as early as 2029 if initial missions go well, though “2031 was more likely”, he added in a post on his social media platform X.

Starship – the largest rocket ever created standing at 123m – is crucial to Musk’s ambitions to colonise the planet Mars.

However it has suffered multiple failures in tests – one of the rockets exploded minutes after it was launched from Texas as part of a test last week, the second failure this year after a similar “rapid unscheduled disassembly” in January.

SpaceX said it would review data “to better understand [the] root cause” of the most recent explosion and noted it happened after the loss of “several” engines.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the company would be required to conduct an investigation before it could fly again.

Nasa hopes to use a modified version of the spaceship as a human lunar lander for its Artemis missions to return to the Moon.

The tech billionaire has grand designs that the rocket system will one day take humans to the Moon, and then on to Mars, making humans “multi-planetary”.

He said that the first Mars mission would carry the Tesla humanoid robot “Optimus”, which was shown to the public last year.

Musk said the robot would one day be able to perform everyday tasks, and cost between $20,000 and $30,000.

On Friday, SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket carrying a crew to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of a plan to bring two astronauts back home.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were due to be on the ISS for only eight days, but because of technical issues with the experimental spacecraft they came on, which was built by Boeing, they have been there for more than nine months.

TheFalcon 9 launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was put back due to a hydraulic ground issue. The next possible launch opportunity is on Friday evening.

The rocket aimed to fly four new crew members to the International Space Station (ISS) and pave the way for the return of Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.

The two Nasa astronauts flew to space in June but were not able to return on a Boeing spacecraft after it was deemed unsafe. The pair should be able to return to Earth within days of the SpaceX mission reaching the ISS.

The Nasa astronauts left earth on 5 June 2024 for an eight-day mission and have been stuck at the ISS for more than nine months, instead helping ongoing missions at the station with maintenance and experiments.

The Wednesday launch would have made it possible for them to return to Earth as early as Sunday.

SpaceX said the issue that forced the launch to scrub related to the hydraulics on one of the clamp arms, which engineers were trying to fix. There were concerns the arm would not have been able to open fully during launch.

The company said the next launch window would be at 1903 Eastern Time (2303GMT) on Friday.

Ms Williams, 58, and Mr Wilmore, 61, have taken their peculiar situation in their stride, saying in a news conference from the ISS in September that they have been trained to “expect the unexpected”.

“This is my happy place,” Ms Williams said at the time, though admitting she missed her family and two dogs.

Mr Wilmore noted the issues with the Starliner spacecraft they arrived on made them not “comfortable” to fly back home on.

He added, however, that 90% of their training was “preparing for the unexpected”.

He said they would stay up there for “eight months, nine months, 10 months” if necessary.

Ms Williams said being in space makes her think more about planet Earth.

“It opens up the door to making you think a bit differently,” she explained. “It’s the one planet we have and we should be taking care of it.”

SpaceX confirmed the un-crewed ship had suffered “a rapid unscheduled disassembly” during its ascent into space, and lost contact with the ground.

The massive SpaceX Starship, the largest rocket ever created, spun out of control shortly after its launch. No injuries or damage have been reported but images from those in Caribbean Sea island nations show fiery debris raining from the sky.

This was the eighth mission to test the rocket, and its second consecutive failure.

The spaceship, which measures 123m (403ft) at takeoff, was meant to re-enter Earth’s orbit over the Indian Ocean after a one-hour flight.

Its Super Heavy booster, which helps it leave the ground, did manage successfully to return to the launchpad.

SpaceX, which is owned by billionaire Elon Musk, said teams immediately started co-ordinating with safety officials for “pre-planned contingency responses”.

The statement added that SpaceX would review data “to better understand [the] root cause” of the misfire and noted the explosion happened after the loss of “several” engines.

“As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.”

The statement says debris should have fallen within a pre-planned area and the rocket did not contain any toxic materials. The company also included an email and phone number for those who believe they’ve found any remnants of the craft.

Musk has yet to comment on Thursday’s explosion.

The accident briefly halted flights at several Florida airports, including in Miami and Orlando, over concerns about flaming debris.

A statement from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the flights in and out of airports were delayed due to a “space launch incident”.

The incident follows a test in January, which saw a Starship rocket fail minutes after launching from SpaceX’s Texas facility.

The FAA also briefly closed airports two months ago, due to the same concerns about falling debris.

After January’s incident, the FAA grounded Starship launches and noted the incident had led to property damage in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean.

“Unfortunately this happened last time too, so we have some practice at this now,” SpaceX flight commentator Dan Huot told reporters at the launch site on Thursday.

This latest Starship launch was conducted before the FAA finished investigating January’s explosion, according to US media reports.

A statement issued from the government of the Turks and Caicos said they were in contact with US authorities and SpaceX and would “continue to keep the public apprised as we work to ensure the safety and security of our Islands”.

Footage posted on X purported to show flaming rocket debris falling over the Caribbean Sea. In the Bahamas, people posted that they were seeking shelter in order to take cover from debris.

Starship is the biggest, most powerful rocket ever built, and is key to Musk’s ambitions for colonising Mars.

SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket – collectively referred to as Starship – is intended to be fully reusable, the company says.

Nasa hopes to use a modified version of the spaceship as a human lunar lander for its Artemis missions to return to the Moon.

In the more distant future, Musk wants Starship to make long-haul trips to Mars and back – about a nine-month trip each way.

“I immediately thought of a sci-fi movie where it looked like a troop formation about to attack,” Simon Eriksson, a workman from Malmo, told the Swedish state broadcaster.

The pyrotechnics were in fact caused by a Space X Falcon 9 rocket re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. There are reports of sightings in Denmark, Sweden and England.

Pieces of the rocket then crashed into Poland and, experts say, may also have landed in Ukraine.

At around 10:00 local time (09:00 GMT), Adam Borucki was astonished to find what appeared to be a charred tank measuring around 1.5m by 1m behind his warehouse in Komorniki, Poland.

“When we came to work, we found a total mess with broken power poles in the storage yard,” Mr Borucki told the BBC.

He said that some that some electrical items and a concrete block stored in the warehouse were also damaged.

“I felt surprised but also a little scared. But ultimately, I’m glad no-one was hurt,” he added.

Mr Borucki contacted the police who, working alongside the Polish space agency Polsa, determined that the unidentified object was debris from a Falcon 9 rocket, manufactured by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX.

“We are investigating how the object ended up in this location, but the important thing is that no-one was harmed,” police spokesperson Andrzej Borowiak said.

A similar piece of debris was discovered in a forest near the Polish village of Wiry, according to Polish police.

Polsa has confirmed that “an uncontrolled re-entry of the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage occurred between 04:46 and 04:48 on February 19, 2025, over Poland”.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is used to transport people and payloads into the Earth’s thermosphere and sometimes beyond. It is designed to be reusable.

The rocket which created this debris was launched by SpaceX from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on 1 February.

“It was supposed to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in a controlled manner and crash into the Pacific Ocean,” Harvard University astrophysicist Dr Jonathan McDowell told the BBC.

“But the engine failed. We’ve seen it orbiting Earth for the past few weeks and we were anticipating an uncontrolled re-entry today, which is what people saw burning in the sky.

“The debris zipped over England at around 17,000 mph, then parts of Scandinavia then parts crashed into eastern Europe at a few hundred miles an hour.”

Space debris from rockets and satellites re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere several times a month. Usually pieces of space debris are entirely burned up by Earth’s atmosphere but larger piece can fall to earth. According to Dr McDowell, an uncontrolled large rocket re-entry is rare and has the potential to be dangerous.

“So far, we’ve been lucky and no-one has been hurt but the more we put into the Earth’s orbit, the more likely it is that our luck will run out,” he said.

“This is the fourth incident recently with a SpaceX Falcon which is causing concern. It looks like glitches like this engine failure are becoming more common.”

So far large pieces of debris have been confirmed in Poland but Dr McDowell suspects that pieces have crashed into western Ukraine where the comet-like streaks of light in the sky “were clearly visible”.

“It’s quite the omen for how our civilisation is changing,” he added.

The rocket’s upper stage dramatically broke up and disintegrated over the Caribbean after launching from Texas on Thursday, forcing airline flights to alter course to avoid falling debris.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was working with SpaceX and other authorities to confirm reports of damage to public property on the Turks and Caicos Islands. There were no reports of injuries.

Elon Musk’s company has been told to carry out a “mishap” investigation by the aviation regulator, which will review the findings before deciding if Starship can return to flight.

The FAA confirmed it had activated a “debris response area” to briefly slow aircraft outside the area where debris was falling, or stop aircraft from leaving their departure locations.

It added that several aircraft asked to divert due to low fuel levels while being held outside the affected area.

Starship is the biggest, most powerful rocket ever built, and is key to Musk’s ambitions of colonising Mars.

Thursday’s uncrewed launch was Starship’s seventh test mission, and the first involving a taller, upgraded version of the rocket.

The Starship upper stage, two metres (6.56 ft) taller than previous versions, was a “new generation ship with significant upgrades”, SpaceX said before the test.

It was due to make a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean roughly an hour after its launch from Boca Chica, Texas.

The Starship system lifted off at 17:38 EST (22:38 GMT) and the upper stage separated from its Super Heavy booster nearly four minutes into flight as planned.

But then SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot reported on a live stream that mission teams had lost contact with the ship.

The Super Heavy booster managed to return to its launchpad roughly seven minutes after lift-off as planned, prompting an eruption of applause from ground control teams.

SpaceX later confirmed the upper stage had undergone “rapid unscheduled disassembly”.

In a post on his social media platform X, Musk said “preliminary indications” were that the problem was linked to an “oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall”.

The billionaire added that “nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month”.

SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket – collectively referred to as Starship – is 123m (403ft) tall and is intended to be fully reusable, the company says.

Nasa hopes to use a modified version of the rocket as a human lunar lander for its Artemis missions to return to the Moon.

In the more distant future, Musk wants Starship to make long-haul trips to Mars and back – about a nine-month trip each way.

The Starship test launch on Thursday came hours after the first flight of the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket system, backed by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.

It was a huge step forward for Bezos and his company that has spent years getting to the point of sending a rocket into orbit.

Bezos and Musk both want to dominate the space vehicle market.

Officials at Elon Musk’s company said the upper stage was lost after problems developed after lift-off from Texas on Thursday.

The mission came hours after the first flight of the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket system, backed by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.

The two tech billionaires both want to dominate the space vehicle market.

Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn. Teams will continue to review data from today’s flight test to better understand root cause,” SpaceX posted on X.

“With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will help us improve Starship’s reliability.”

Unverified footage on social media shows what appears to be the rocket breaking up in flames.

“Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!” Mr Musk posted on X, sharing footage of the launch’s aftermath.

He also said “improved versions” of the ship and booster were “already waiting for launch”.

“Preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity,” Musk said a short while later, adding that “nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month”.

Footage of the launch clocked up 7.2m views, according to a SpaceX livestream.

The Starship system had lifted off from Boca Chica, Texas, at 17:38 EST (22:38 GMT) in the company’s seventh test mission.

The Starship upper stage separated from its Super Heavy booster nearly four minutes into flight as planned.

But then SpaceX Communications Manager Dan Huot reported on a live stream that mission teams had lost contact with the ship.

The Super Heavy booster managed to returned to its launchpad roughly seven minutes after lift-off as planned, prompting an eruption of applause from ground control teams.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was aware “an anomaly occurred” during the SpaceX mission.

“The FAA briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the area where space vehicle debris was falling. Normal operations have resumed,” it said in a statement.

It comes a day after a SpaceX rocket blasted off from Florida carrying two privately constructed lunar landers and a micro rover to the Moon.

The uncrewed Falcon 9 launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday.

And Bezos’ Blue Origin company successfully launched a rocket into orbit for the first time.

It was a huge step forward for Bezos and his company that has spent years getting to the point of sending a rocket into orbit.

The Falcon 9 took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 01:09 local time (06:09 GMT) on Wednesday, carrying landers belonging to America’s Firefly Aerospace and Japan’s ispace.

The landers will eventually separate once they reach the Moon’s orbit and conduct independent explorations.

They are the latest in a growing number of commercial missions to the Moon.

Firefly’s rover, Blue Ghost, is expected to take about 45 days to reach the Moon, once it has separated from the SpaceX rocket.

It will then drill, collect samples and also take X-ray images of the Earth’s magnetic field to “advance research for future human missions on the Moon and provide insights into how space weather impacts the planet”, according to SpaceX.

Meanwhile, ispace’s Resilence lander will take up to five months to reach the Moon’s surface, where it will deploy a rover for exploration and attempt to scoop up loose surface material known as regolith.

Nasa is backing the endeavour, which, if successful, will be its biggest commercial delivery to the Moon so far.

Intuitive Machines last year became the first commercial outfit to put a lander on the Moon, a feat only previously accomplished by the US, the Soviet Union, China, India and Japan.

Separately, SpaceX is also conducting its seventh orbital flight test of its Starship rocket, which is due to take off from Texas at 16:00 local time (22:00 GMT).