India, March 18 -- Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore, two veteran NASA astronauts, are preparing to return to the Earth after a nine-month-long overstay at the International Space Station (ISS).

The astronaut duo travelled to the ISS in June last year for a scheduled eight-day mission. A short stay turned out to be a months-long ordeal when the Boeing Starliner capsule, they arrived on was deemed unfit to return them to Earth after issues with its propulsion system.

Their return to Earth is part of a contingency plan devised by NASA with technical assistance from the world's richest man Elon Musk's company SpaceX. The company's Crew Dragon capsule arrived on the space station Saturday night to rescue stranded "Butch and Suni."

Sunita ...