Nine months in space: What have the stuck Nasa astronauts missed out on?

Astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams have spent month marooned on the International Space Station.

The pair lifted off to the ISS last June on what was supposed to be a routine test flight of Boeing’s Strainercapsule to evaluate the spacecraft’s capabilities.

They were scheduled to spend a week in space, but technical problems forced their capsule to return without them, leaving them stranded with no way back home - until today (18 March).

As they journey back to Earth, The Independent takes a look at the milestone events in history that have happened while Wilmore and Williams were away.

They sure have a lot to catch up on.