they were supposed to stay there for eight days –

They were supposed to stay eight days, but the stay in space for two astronauts, a man and a woman, will become much longer. NASA announced yesterday that Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who were delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) last June on Boeing’s Starliner, could remain stuck at the station until February 2025, after problems arose with the spacecraft used on the outward journey. NASA officials have said the astronauts could return on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon in February, if the Starliner is still deemed unsafe for return to Earth.

The U.S. space agency also discussed potential plans with SpaceX to leave two empty seats on an upcoming Crew Dragon launch for NASA astronauts who became the first crew to fly Boeing’s Starliner capsule. The astronauts’ test mission, initially scheduled to last about eight days on the station, was extended by problems with the Starliner’s propulsion system that increasingly called into question the spacecraft’s ability to return them safely to Earth as planned.