NASA ISS Astronauts' Return Delayed Until Spring

Facts

• NASA on Tuesday announced that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who launched on June 5 for a planned week-long mission on the International Space Station (ISS), must remain in space until late March or early April, extending their stay to nearly 10 months.^[1][2]
• The astronauts were unable to return on time because of technical issues with Boeing's Starliner capsule. It experienced helium leaks and thruster malfunctions, leading NASA to return the spacecraft empty in September.^[3]
• Elon Musk's SpaceX originally agreed to send a Dragon capsule to bring the duo home in February, but the company needs additional time to prepare a new capsule for the Crew-10 mission.^[1]
• NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi will make up the replacement crew.^[1]
• The space agency maintains a preference for overlapping crews at the ISS to facilitate smoother handovers of ongoing experiments and maintenance projects.^[4]

Sources: ^[1]NBC, ^[2]New York Post, ^[3]Daily Mail and ^[4]Associated Press.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by BBC News and NASA Blogs. This delay represents a necessary operational decision to ensure crew safety and maintain proper space station protocols while awaiting a crew transition. Two resupply flights were recently made to ensure the astronauts' health and comfort, including bringing them items to celebrate the upcoming holidays.
• Narrative B, as provided by Daily Mail. This prolonged stay represents an unplanned burden on the astronauts, who prepared for a one-week mission but are now facing 10 months in space. This situation — described by some as "inhumane and torture" — highlights concerns about the psychological and physical impacts of extended space missions.