India, Feb. 14 -- NASA has announced that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who have been stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) since September, may return to Earth earlier than initially expected. In a statement this week, the space agency revealed that the pair's return would be moved up to mid-March, rather than late March or April as previously scheduled.

This decision comes after NASA and SpaceX made the call to switch capsules for upcoming astronaut flights. The new plan aims to shorten Wilmore and Williams' extended stay in space, which reached the eight-month mark last week. NASA's commercial crew programme manager, Steve Stich, acknowledged that human spaceflight often brings unexpected challenges, noting th...