Nasa astronauts left stranded in space may have to wait MONTHS before return to Earth

It has since been revealed that the pair might not return home until February 2025.

Nasa is preparing to enact its contingency plan to launch a two-person crew on SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission in September.

However, such an operation would still mean the pair will not return home until months later.

The astronauts were originally scheduled to return to Earth on June 13 after spending no more than a week on the ISS.

Williams and Wilmore have been stuck in space for more than 60 days.

Thruster failures and helium leaks led experts to keep them in orbit for longer over fears a trip back on the spacecraft could end in disaster.

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However, Boeing “remains confident in the Starliner spacecraft and its ability to return safely with crew”.

Starliner only departed from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on June 5.

Nasa confirmed it would delay the return flight to give engineers time to diagnose a number of issues.

The issues appeared partially resolved following a test on June 15.

Boeing's Starliner manager Mark Nappi described the error-prone helium system as "manageable" despite "not working like we designed it".

"So we've got to go figure that out," he said.

Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said at a media conference at the time: “We are taking our time and following our standard mission management team process.

“We are letting the data drive our decision-making relative to managing the small helium system leaks and thruster performance we observed during rendezvous and docking."

Stitch later added: “We are strategically using the extra time to clear a path for some critical station activities while completing readiness for Butch and Suni’s return on Starliner and gaining valuable insight into the system upgrades we will want to make for post-certification missions.”