NASA again delays return of astronauts stranded on space station

AFP | Washington

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Two US astronauts stranded for months on the International Space Station will remain there at least until late March, NASA said Tuesday as it announced another delay in the mission to bring them home.

Veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams arrived at the ISS in June aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, and were due to spend eight days on the orbiting laboratory.

But problems arose with the Starliner’s propulsion system during the flight there, so NASA opted for a big change in plans.

After weeks of intensive tests on the Starliner, the space agency decided to return it to Earth without its crew, and to bring the two stranded astronauts back home with the members of a SpaceX mission called Crew-9.

Crew-9’s two astronauts arrived at the ISS aboard a Dragon spacecraft in late September, with two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams. The plan was for all four to return home in February 2025.