Nasa to say when astronauts ‘stuck’ in orbit will return – but still unsure how

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft which launched astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams to the International Space Station. Photograph: AP

Nasa says it is close to announcing when it will bring home two astronauts who have been “stuck” in orbit for more than two months by ongoing technical problems with Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, but admits it still has not figured out exactly how.

The space agency’s latest update on the troubled test mission on Wednesday revealed that managers were expecting to make a final decision either late next week or early the week after that, after ground engineers complete an evaluation of Starliner’s glitchy propulsion system.