Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Earth in a SpaceX capsule after problems with a Boeing vehicle set in motion an unexpected extended stay on the International Space Station.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have returned to Earth after being stuck in space for more than nine months.

Their return caps a protracted space mission that was fraught with uncertainty and technical troubles and turned a rare instance of NASA's contingency planning - and the latest failures of Boeing's Starliner - into a global spectacle.