Boeing astronauts could be forced to stay on International Space Station until February: NASA

Two astronauts who traveled to the International Space Station (ISS) earlier this year could be forced to remain there until February, NASA warned on Wednesday, after their capsule experienced difficulties mid-flight.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were only expected to be on the space station for a week, flew a Boeing Starliner spaceship to the station on June 6, and are now stranded after five of the ship's thrusters malfunctioned. Helium has also leaked from the capsule's propulsion system.

Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said they are still looking at ways to bring Wilmore and Williams back to Earth more quickly, but that a final decision will probably need to be made in mid-August. 

“Our prime option is to return Butch and Suni on Starliner,” Stich said in a news briefing, NBC News reported. “However, we have done the requisite planning to make sure we have other options open, and so we have been working with SpaceX to ensure that they’re ready to respond.”

Stich did not offer a timeline on when the pair would be able to come home if they can get Starliner back up and running. 

Another possible solution is changing an upcoming SpaceX Dragon capsule launch to the ISS from four people to two people, so that Wilmore and Williams could take the other two slots on the way back down. But the SpaceX launch has been delayed by a month to give officials more time to work on the Starliner's issues.

Boeing officials, who were not part of NASA's briefing, told NBC that it still believes in Starliner's capabilities, but would work to configure the space shuttle for an "uncrewed return" if NASA changes its mission.

The June launch was intended to be the last step before NASA would sign off on letting Boeing conduct manned missions to and from the ISS. However, the future of that goal is now unclear.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.