NASA Astronauts Wilmore and Williams' 8-Day Mission Extended to 10 Months Amid Return Delay

Dec 18, 2024, 01:41 AM

NASA has announced that astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Suni Williams will remain aboard the International Space Station (ISS) until at least late March 2025, extending their mission due to delays in spacecraft readiness. The pair launched in June 2024 on Boeing's Starliner capsule for an eight-day mission, but technical problems led NASA to send the capsule back empty in September, prolonging their stay. NASA and SpaceX have postponed the launch of the Crew-10 mission to no earlier than late March 2025 to allow time to complete processing on a new Dragon spacecraft set to arrive in early January. As a result, Wilmore and Williams, now part of Crew-9, will continue their mission on the ISS, which will now last approximately ten months instead of the planned eight days.