Published December 18, 2024 2:04 PM NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts (from top) Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station’s Harmony module and the Starliner spacecraft. NASA Two NASA astronauts who traveled to the International Space Station (ISS) on the troubled Boeing Starliner spacecraft will be having their stay in space extended yet again, as they will now not return to Earth until late March 2025 at the earliest. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams lifted off in the Starliner on June 5 this year for what was originally intended to be a one-week trip. However problems with the thrusters of the Starliner meant that the spacecraft had to stay docked to the ISS for months, and eventually NASA decided it would rather bring the astronauts home using a SpaceX Dragon craft instead. Recommended Videos That meant that the Starliner departed the station without the two astronauts, and it did return to Earth safely. Wilmore and Williams then joined the SpaceX Crew-9, along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The four members of Crew-9 had been scheduled to return to Earth in February of next year, but this has now been pushed back by a month. Please enable Javascript to view this content While there have been tabloid worries about the astronauts being unwell or underfed on the station, NASA has assured the public that they are safe and are not losing weight. It is not unusual for astronauts to spend up to a year on the ISS, and there are plenty of supplies available for the crew. Related