NASA on Tuesday said that it has further delayed the return of astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore back to Earth from the International Space Station to at least late March 2025, prolonging their stay at the station for over nine months.

What Happened: Williams and Wilmore launched to the International Space Station aboard Boeing Co's (NYSE:BA) Starliner spacecraft in June and were supposed to return in about eight days.

However, technical issues identified with the spacecraft while docking delayed a return, and the space agency subsequently decided to scrap bringing back the two astronauts on the Starliner spacecraft.

The Starliner subsequently returned without the astronauts on Sept. 6. The two astronauts, NASA then said, will return with Crew 9 members Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov when they return home in February 2025 aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

Crew-9 can return to Earth only after Crew-10 arrives at the station. NASA on Tuesday delayed the Crew-10's launch to ISS to no earlier than late March 2025, subsequently delaying Crew 9's return. The agency did not specify a date for the team's return.

The delay to launch Crew-10, NASA said, was made to allow NASA and SpaceX time to complete processing on a new Dragon spacecraft for the mission.

"Fabrication, assembly, testing, and final integration of a new spacecraft is a painstaking endeavor that requires great attention to detail," said Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

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Photo courtesy: Flickr/ NASA Johnson