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NASA astronauts Sunita "Suni" Williams and Barry "Butch" Willmore were expected to return home in February after their extended stay at the ISS, but NASA confirmed the two will be in space longer.
Stranded NASA Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams Reach Major Milestone in Space
Turns out Sunita "Suni" Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore won't be touching down anytime soon.
The NASA astronauts had originally set off an eight-day mission to the International Space Station in June, only to have a leak in their Boeing Starliner aircraft—related to its propulsion—lead to an eight month delay in their return.
And now, instead of coming home in February 2025 as originally planned, NASA has confirmed that the two aren't expected to return until March or April because of a delay in launching their replacements at the ISS, according to NBC News.
The agency explained that a new crew needs to launch before Williams and Wilmore are able to return, but because SpaceX needs more time to work on the capsule they'll be using for liftoff—and NASA doesn't want to use a different capsule—the team won't be launching until late March at the earliest.
According to NASA officials, they prefer to have overlapping crews at the ISS for a smoother transition, and as such Williams and Willmore's mission has been extended to 10 months in space.
Still, the astronauts—who recently hit a milestone of six months in space—are making the best of their extended trip, and even enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal along with fellow Americans Don Pettit and Nick Hague and three other Russian astronauts also aboard the ISS.
"We have a bunch of food that we've packed away that is Thanksgiving-ish," Williams, 59, told NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt from the ISS during the holiday. "Some smoked turkey, some cranberry, apple cobbler, green beans and mushrooms and mashed potatoes."
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The big difference between their space-station feast and one on Earth? All the food was in dehydrated pouches until ready to be consumed.
But, as Williams added, she and Wilmore, 61, are looking for whatever silver lining they can.
"We're feeling good, working out, eating right," she explained. "We have a lot of fun up here, too. So, you know, people are worried about us. Really, don't worry about us."
(E! and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)
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