NASA astronauts finally return to Earth after 9 months in space

Two NASA astronauts have safely returned to Earth after an extended stay at the International Space Station.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams made a safe splashdown off the coast of Florida on Tuesday local time.

The pair was chosen for the first crewed test flight of Boeing's Starliner.

But upon arrival at the ISS in June last year engineers detected a number of technical issues with the spacecraft which led to its return to Earth in September without Wilmore and Williams on board.

As a result their eight-day mission become an almost three hundred day stay in space.