At a conference on August 7, NASA experts admitted that they still lack confidence in the spacecraft’s capabilities Starliner An agreement has been reached with the American company Boeing to safely return two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, from the International Space Station.

Crew Starliner Although the expedition was planned to be limited to seven days, it has been at the orbital outpost since early June. Ongoing technical issues with the spacecraft have pushed back the return date indefinitely. Despite NASA’s contingency plan to send the astronauts back to Earth aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, their stay could be significantly extended.

According to the head of the commercial program NASA According to Steve Stitch, Wilmore and Williams will have to wait until February 2025 to return home if they take part in the SpaceX Crew-9 mission.

In other words, this trip to the ISS could potentially take anywhere from two weeks to nearly eight months, an unexpected and significant delay caused by Boeing’s technical issues.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration also confirmed rumors that SpaceX was considering releasing two of the four seats on its upcoming mission to the ISS to make room for Williams and Wilmore to return. The mission was initially scheduled for August 18, but was later postponed until September 24 to give the agency more time. Overall, NASA is still confused and has yet to make a decision.