Astronauts stuck in space for nine months begin return to earth with splashdown available to livestream

After a long nine months up in space, NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams are finally on their way home.

That's right - a woman could have gone through an entire pregnancy in the time that it has taken to get this twosome on the road again.

They started their 17-hour journey back to earth in SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft in the early hours of this morning (18 March) and you can watch the moment they splashdown live.

Tuning into NASA's livestream will probably offer some much-needed closure for all those who have been following along with the space saga since June last year.

In a post on Twitter updating people on their progress, the space agency wrote: "They're on their way!"

NASA said that Crew 9 had at long last undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 1:05am ET, which is 05:05am for people in the UK.

They've still got a good distance to go yet, but you can catch coverage of the Dragon's re-entry and splashdown from 20:45pm tonight on Twitter, YouTube and NASA+.

Ditching the Netflix series you're binge-watching for just one night to watch a piece of history unfold live won't do you any harm.

Coverage switched to audio only after the undocking was completed, but NASA says video will resume 'prior to the start of deorbit burn'.

This is when the engines of the spacecraft are fired up to full capacity so that it is able to re-enter the earth's atmosphere, and it is estimated to begin at 21:11pm GMT.

The crew are supposed to splash down at about 21:57pm GMT in the Gulf of Mexico near the Florida coast, before a return-to-earth press conference will get underway.

Wilmore, 62, and Williams, 59, have been stuck on the ISS for nine months (NASA)

Boffins from SpaceX and NASA met on Sunday (16 March) to assess the weather and splashdown conditions, before settling on an 'earlier return opportunity' due to more favourable conditions being forecasted tonight.

This rescheduling will also allow the astronauts to 'complete handover duties while providing operational flexibility' when the weather is set to take a turn later in the week.

NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate Joel Montalbano, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich, NASA’s International Space Station Program manager Bill Spetch and SpaceX director Sarah Walker will all be fielding questions from the press about the grand return after the splash down.

Wilmore, 62, and Williams, 59, were originally only meant to be on an eight-day trip to the ISS, but it ended up being drastically extended - and they won't even get overtime pay for it.

The duo encountered a string of technical problems along the way, as well as false hope offered by the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, which only dragged out the mission even longer.

Now, Wilmore and Williams have been relieved by SpaceX Crew-10 astronauts Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi and Kirill Peskov and can finally see their families.

The pair are accompanied by Crew 9 mission members Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov for their journey back.