By the time Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams return to Earth they will have logged more than eight months in space. Their original mission was due to last for a week.

Eleven hours after successfully launching spacecraft to bring back two astronauts from the International Space Station, SpaceX announced future launches have been halted because of problem with second stage deorbiting.

The capsule rocketed into orbit to fetch the test pilots whose Boeing spacecraft returned to Earth empty earlier this month because of safety concerns.