Washington, March 18 -- Indian-descent American astronaut Sunita Williams, is scheduled to return to Earth Tuesday evening, ending an unusually protracted stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

A spacecraft carrying Williams and three other astronauts will undock from the ISS in a few hours and it will splash down off the coast of the American state of Florida at 5:57 p.m. US Eastern (around 3 a.m. Wednesday in India), according to NASA.

The crew of the spacecraft called Dragon is scheduled to undock from the ISS and close the hatch at 11:15 p.m. US Eastern (8:45 a.m. Tuesday in India).

NASA will be live-streaming the Dragon's return, as part of its joint programme with SpaceX, called NASA's SpaceX Crew 9 mission.

For Will...