NASA said Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been on the International Space Station since June, will be delayed once more. The two were to stay in space briefly; however, the mission has now been extended to 10 months. Instead of returning home in February 2024, it will be late this month or April due to delays.
The astronauts blasted off on June 5, 2023, aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule, the spacecraft’s first crewed mission. Though their flight was supposed to last about a week, it had been extended multiple times after some technical issues appeared linked to the capsule. In September, NASA sent the capsule back to Earth empty for further evaluation, thereby pushing the astronauts’ return.
The new timeline hinges on the successful launch of their replacement crew, which was originally scheduled for February. However, SpaceX, the company responsible for transporting the crew, has encountered delays in preparing the new spacecraft for launch. NASA initially considered using an alternate SpaceX capsule to send the new crew earlier but ultimately decided that waiting for the new spacecraft would ensure a safer and smoother transition.
NASA’s priority has always been for overlapping crew members aboard the ISS to maintain operations and ensure a smooth handover; now, with the launch of the next crew until at least late March, the mission tenure of Wilmore and Williams will have to be extended.
Typically, astronauts stay at the ISS for about six months, though some missions have lasted up to a year. But this delay is unprecedented for the duo as their mission duration now surpasses the usual frame of the longest stays for astronauts on a single mission.
These surely bear with them many challenges for the astronauts: from the mental and physical strain of being out in space for such an extended period to many more. That does not, however, keep NASA from maintaining its mantra of safety first, making sure all steps toward returning the astronauts to Earth are done with mission success in mind.
