The two NASA astronauts who are stranded at the International Space Station could return to Earth a little earlier than planned.
The space agency announced on Tuesday that SpaceX will switch capsules for the upcoming astronaut flights in order to bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back home by mid-March instead of late March or April. This will shorten at least a couple of weeks their extended stay at the International Space Station, which reached the eight-month mark last week.
"Manned space flights are full of unexpected challenges," said Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, in a statement.
The test pilots were supposed to return in June on Boeing's Starliner capsule after what was supposed to be a week-long demonstration flight. But the capsule had so many issues reaching the space station that NASA decided to bring it back empty and reassigned the pair to SpaceX.
SpaceX then postponed the launch of their replacements on a completely new capsule that needed more preparation, adding more time to Wilmore and Williams' mission.
Due to anticipated additional work for the new capsule, NASA opted for their next crew to fly on an older capsule, and now the launch is scheduled for March 12. This older capsule had already been assigned to a private crew awaiting launch this spring.
The private flight to the space station organized by Houston-based Axiom Space, which includes astronauts from Poland, Hungary, and India, was postponed and will take place in the coming months.
NASA prefers a new crew to arrive before sending back the old one, in this case Wilmore, Williams, and two others who have been there since September. The new crew going up includes two NASA astronauts, as well as one from Japan and one from Russia.
NASA's latest change of plans comes two weeks after the space agency said it was working "expeditiously" to bring back Wilmore and Williams as soon as possible. A day earlier, President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had promised to expedite the astronauts' return.