Two astronauts who traveled to the International Space Station (ISS) on Boeing’s Starliner will have to wait even longer to return to Earth due to a recent delay in SpaceX’s Crew-10 mission. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were scheduled to come back home in February 2025, but the new date is now no earlier than late March 2025.
NASA had initially planned for the Starliner to return with the astronauts on board, but issues were discovered, forcing them to leave without their crewmates. SpaceX was then called upon to bring them back, and although they would have waited until February 2025, the Crew-10 mission has been pushed back further.
This delay means that Wilmore and Williams will remain in space for an extra month. The astronauts who will eventually return on the Crew-9 mission are Nick Hague, Aleksandr Gorbunov, Zena Cardman, and Stephanie Wilson, while Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers will join them at the ISS.
The Boeing Starliner is facing its final test as NASA considers selling off its space-related programs to simplify its portfolio. This could be one of the last major space projects for Boeing in its history with NASA.
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/stranded-boeing-starliner-astronauts-stuck-141949331.html