NASA confirms the fate of the two astronauts Boeing left stranded in space

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft transported two NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station (ISS) on June 5 with the goal of returning them a week later. However, that didn't go to plan.

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NASA astronauts Suni Williams (left) and Barry "Butch" Wilmore (right) aboard the International Space Station

Prior to launch and upon arrival NASA and Boeing detected helium leaks on the Starliner spacecraft. Some leaks were detected before launch but were cleared by both NASA and Boeing, while additional leaks were detected throughout the journey and confirmed upon arrival. Since then NASA and Boeing have been gathering data on the Starliner situation and determining an attack plan to return Wilmore and Williams back to Earth.

After a lengthy analysis period NASA has determined there isn't enough concrete evidence to give the agency enough confidence to sign off on Starliner meeting all of the agency's rigorous safety and performance requirements that are designed to make astronauts as safe as possible during flight. Essentially, Starliner is too broken to fly and isn't a safe transportation method for the NASA astronauts.

NASA states in its blog post on its website that Starliner will return to Earth without the astronauts sometime in early September. As for the astronauts, both Wilmore and Williams will board a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, specifically Crew-9, which isn't scheduled to return to Earth until February next year at the earliest. Furthermore, this delay will mean the four-man Crew-8 capsule currently docked with the ISS will be the only emergency capsule available for the duration of the astronauts' stay.

NASA writes the Crew-8 capsule's cargo hold will be modified to accommodate Williams and Wilmore in the event of an emergency.