SpaceX and NASA delayed 4 astronauts returning from ISS, but the rescheduled flight is 12 hours quicker - meaning less time wearing diapers designed to cope with a leaky toilet

• NASA and SpaceX delayed the return of four astronauts from the ISS from Sunday to Monday.
• The rescheduled flight is much shorter than the initial, planned trip - eight hours instead of 20.

SpaceX and NASA have delayed a flight returning astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) because of high winds in the Gulf of Mexico near to where the capsule is supposed to splash down, NASA said in a $4 on Sunday.

The Crew-2 mission is now scheduled for Monday afternoon just after 2 p.m. EST, after initially being scheduled for Sunday. The rescheduled flight is expected to be 12 hours quicker than the original was, NASA said: The four-person crew will take just eight hours to return to Earth, rather than the 20 hours planned for Sunday's flight, per$4 and $4's websites.

The journey time from the ISS back to Earth onboard a Crew Dragon capsule can vary. $4, took just over 19 hours to return in August 2020, per Space, while the Crew-1 mission back to Earth in May $4.

The rescheduling means the astronauts will spend less time in special diapers they have to wear because of a toilet leak in the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

$4 on the Crew-2 mission, who are coming back to Earth after seven months, will $4 for toilet breaks, Steve Stich, NASA's commercial crew program manager, previously said in a press briefing, per $4.

This is because the Crew-2 astronauts discovered a toilet leak in the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which has been docked at the ISS since it $4, $4 reported in October.

The $4 will be out of order for the return trip, Stich said in the press briefing, leaving astronauts to resort to "other means," according to a $4 report. "It's a short mission coming home," he added, per Space.

SpaceX's first all-civilian mission, Inspiration4, $4 during a three-day trip in space in September.

A $4 into a storage tank came loose beneath the spaceship's floor and leaked onto a fan that generates suction to direct the waste in the right direction. The fan then sprayed urine underneath the spaceship's floor, but urine didn't get into the cabin.

SpaceX asked Crew-2 astronauts, who have been at the ISS since spring, to check for the same issue. The astronauts confirmed contamination in the space capsule, SpaceX official Bill Gerstenmaier said in a press conference in October, per $4.

This isn't the first time SpaceX and NASA have had to postpone crewed missions recently.

The upcoming Crew-3 mission to the ISS has been pushed back three times because of bad weather and $4 The $4 but is now slated to blast off on Wednesday, per SpaceX's website.