NOTE: NBC Chicago will offer live special coverage of the return beginning at approximately 4:50 p.m. CT. The coverage will appear in the player above as soon as it begins.
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are finally on their way home to earth after nine months in space.
NBC Chicago will have a live signal of the event.
The pair had planned to visit the International Space Station for a week, launching on the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule back in June.
The vehicle reportedly encountered issues while docking to the space station, prompting NASA to send the Starliner back to Earth without the astronauts on board.
Williams and Wilmore had to stay in orbit for months longer than anticipated but finally departed the ISS early Tuesday morning aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
The capsule carrying Williams and Wilmore is expected to splash down off the coast of Florida at approximately 4:57 p.m. CT.
The two will also be accompanied by NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who also recently completed a six-month mission at the station.
On Sunday, a new crew of four astronauts- NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov- arrived at the orbiting outpost, kicking off Williams’ and Wilmore’s returns.
In a statement, NASA said the timing of the group’s return on Tuesday was based on “favorable conditions forecasted” for the evening, after it was originally scheduled for Wednesday evening.