In late August, officials at NASA announced what had already become apparent: Two U.S. astronauts, stranded for nearly three months at the International Space Station, weren't coming home as planned and would have to remain in space for several months.
The Boeing Starliner craft that transported Suni Williams and Barry Wilmore to the ISS in June, the company’s first crewed mission, had experienced multiple problems and was returning to Earth without people on board. A SpaceX rescue craft, meanwhile, couldn’t reach the astronauts until February 2025.
