Fresh blow to NASA astronauts stranded on space station in rescue mission update

Two NASA astronauts sent into space for eight days back in June, will be stuck for even longer, after a rescue mission was delayed.

Commander Barry 'Butch' Wilmore and pilot Sunita 'Suni' Williams went up to the International Space Station on June 5, for an eight-day mission will now be away for more than eight months. The Starliner spacecraft they arrived on had issues before, during and after the launch, so NASA bosses decided not to bring them home as originally planned.

The space experts judged a flight home on the Starliner, which experienced thruster failures and helium leaks, would be too risky to carry out. NASA have now told the pair that Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams can only make their return journey after a new crew have arrived and taken over from the original crew on board.

The space agency says they will leave only after the "handover period”, to allow lessons to be shared with the new crew adding it will lead to "a better transition for ongoing science and maintenance at the complex”. Earlier it had said that the stranded astronauts were expected to return by the end of February, but the latest change means their replacements will lift off for the space station "no earlier than late March 2025”.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are stuck in space (Image:AFP via Getty Images)

Elon Musk’s SpaceX had attempted to help but ended up temporarily grounding its Falcon 9 rockets in September. A different SpaceX capsule was initially considered for flying up a replacement crew but NASA decided the best option was to wait for a new craft.

Steve Stich, manager of Nasa’s commercial crew programme, said: "We appreciate the hard work by the SpaceX team to expand the Dragon fleet in support of our missions and the flexibility of the station programme and expedition crews as we work together to complete the new capsule’s readiness for flight."

Before their June 5 launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, Wilmore and Williams both said their families bought into the uncertainty and stress of their professional careers decades ago. During their lone orbital news conference earlier this year, they said they had no complaints, they added, and enjoyed pitching in with space station work.

Butch's wife Deanna was equally stoic in an interview with WVLT-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, their home state. She was already bracing for a delay until next February, saying: "You just sort of have to roll with it.”