2 Astronauts Blasted Off to Space for Short Mission. They Ended Up Being 'Stranded' for Nearly 300 Days

Back successful June 2024, 2 NASA astronauts had nary thought that their mission, which was expected to return little than 2 weeks, would move into a nine-month enactment astatine nan International Space Station.

One twelvemonth later aft liftoff, PEOPLE is looking backmost astatine nan Boeing Starliner saga.

Even earlier Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched into abstraction connected June 5, 2024 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, their ngo faced a bid of delays.

That May, nan astronauts were strapped into nan spacecraft and conscionable hours distant from motorboat erstwhile nan formation was canceled because of an rumor pinch nan rocket that helped propel nan vehicle, according to NBC News. While moving to reside nan issue, a helium leak successful nan propulsion strategy was discovered, NASA reported astatine nan time.

Almost a period later, connected June 1, nan spacecraft was little than 4 minutes distant from liftoff erstwhile nan crushed motorboat sequencer — nan machine that launches nan rocket — triggered an automatic hold. A motorboat nan pursuing time was besides scrubbed.

After successfully launching into space, nan astronauts arrived astatine nan ISS nan next day. But mechanical problems pinch their spacecraft quickly group disconnected different bid of delays that resulted successful them spending 286 days successful space.

As they arrived astatine nan abstraction station, nan Starliner faced helium leaks and issues pinch nan guidance power thrusters, Boeing said astatine nan time.

NASA and Boeing past announced connected June 18, that nan unit would request to stay successful abstraction for astatine slightest a week longer than expected.

"We want to springiness our teams a small spot much clip to look astatine nan data, do immoderate analysis, and make judge we're really fresh to travel home," Steve Stich, head of NASA's commercialized unit program, said during a media teleconference astatine nan time.

But that timeframe came and went — and months later, Wilmore and Williams were still successful space.

In August — 63 days into nan ngo — NASA announced that location was a chance that they would stay successful abstraction until 2025. By nan extremity of nan month, NASA announced that that they had decided that they had decided to bring nan Starliner backmost to Earth without nan crew, who would would stay astatine nan ISS until February 2025.

“They will alert location aboard a Dragon spacecraft pinch 2 different unit members assigned to nan agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission,” a spokesperson for NASA said.

The duo welcomed nan SpaceX crew, which consisted of NASA’s Nick Hague and nan Russian Space Agency’s Alexander Gorbunov, to nan ISS connected Sept. 30.

While successful space, nan astronauts celebrated Thanksgiving — complete pinch a dehydrated nutrient feast —and Christmas, voted successful nan 2024 statesmanlike election and said pinch nan media. During a press conference from abstraction successful early March, Williams moreover described her clip astatine nan ISS as “fun.”

“Every time is absorbing because we're up successful abstraction and it's a batch of fun,” she said, but added that "the hardest portion is having nan folks connected nan crushed person to not cognize precisely erstwhile we're coming back.”

About 7 months aft she arrived astatine nan ISS, Williams took her first abstraction walk successful January 2025 — and that aforesaid month, President Donald Trump claimed that nan astronauts had been "abandoned" by nan Biden management and that he had personally asked Elon Musk and SpaceX to bring them back.

“Terrible that nan Biden management near them location truthful long,” Musk wrote successful a societal media consequence posted connected X, nan societal media level he owns, echoing Trump's rhetoric.

(Despite their remarks, NASA had, of course, already been collaborating pinch SpaceX for months on a scheme to bring nan astronauts location — and backmost successful December, NASA group precocious March arsenic a target for their return.)

NASA had agelong pushed back connected nan thought that nan astronauts were "stranded," and aft Trump's remarks, nan astronauts seconded that.

"That’s been nan communicative from time one: stranded, abandoned, stuck," Wilmore told CNN's Anderson Cooper from nan International Space Station connected Feb. 13.

"But that is, again, not what our quality spaceflight programme is about," he added. "We don’t consciousness abandoned, we don’t consciousness stuck, we don’t consciousness stranded."

Finally, nan brace started their travel backmost to Earth alongside Hague and Gorbunov connected March 18, undocking from nan ISS "right connected time" early successful nan morning, splashing down hours hours later that aforesaid day.

In their first interview aft their return, some Williams and Wilmore said astir having to beryllium elastic successful real-time arsenic nan business unfolded. 

"My first thought was, 'We conscionable gotta pivot,' you know?" Williams told Fox News. "If this was nan destiny, if our spacecraft was going to spell home, based connected decisions made here, we were going to beryllium up location 'til February, I was like, 'Okay, let's make nan champion of it.' "

"It's not astir me," Wilmore added. "It's not astir my feelings. It's astir what this quality abstraction formation programme is about. It's our nationalist goals. And I person to wrap my mind around, what does our federation request retired of maine correct now?"

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In a abstracted question and reply pinch nan BBC, they some said that though nan thought of ne'er coming location “definitely went done our minds."

But, Williams added, done it all, they “knew cipher was going to conscionable fto america down" and that, "everybody had our backmost and was looking retired for us.”