NASA gives exact date astronauts stuck in space for EIGHT MONTHS will return to Earth

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

NASA's stuck astronauts have been told their flight back to Earth could be sooner than planned. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) for eight months, after embarking on a mission that was only meant to last eight days.

The space agency has announced that SpaceX will bring the stranded astronauts home in mid-March instead of late March or April.

Elon Musk's space company has said it will switch capsules for upcoming astronaut flights to shave a couple of weeks off the astronauts' prolonged stay. “Human spaceflight is full of unexpected challenges,” NASA's commercial crew programme manager, Steve Stich, said in a statement. "Our operational flexibility is enabled by the tremendous partnership between NASA and SpaceX and the agility SpaceX continues to demonstrate to safely meet the agency’s emerging needs." In December, NASA said their journey home would be "no earlier than late March 2025".

Now, the space agency says it is aiming to send its replacement Crew 10 mission to space on March 12. "NASA and SpaceX are accelerating the target launch and return dates for the upcoming crew rotation missions to and from the International Space Station," NASA wrote in a blog post. "The Crew-9 mission is planned for return to Earth following a several day handover period with the newly arrived Crew-10 expedition crew." Last month, the stranded pair completed their first spacewalk together, with Williams breaking the record for most non-consecutive hours spent spacewalking by a female astronaut.