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NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since June due to spacecraft issues, will face a further delay in their return.
The agency has postponed the launch of the next crew mission to the ISS from February to late March to finalize preparations for the SpaceX spacecraft that will transport them.
Williams and Wilmore were initially set to spend a week on the ISS but have now been in orbit for over nine months.
They will depart alongside NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov after a brief handover with the incoming crew.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager emphasized the meticulous process of assembling and testing the new SpaceX Dragon capsule, which is expected to arrive in Florida in early January.
The Crew-10 mission, once launched, will carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi. They are currently training for the mission in Houston.