ISS Astronauts Might be Stuck There Until 2025

Boys and girls have dreamed of becoming astronauts exploring outer space for years, but the prospect of being stuck there turns a dream into a nightmare. 

That’s what happened to two American astronauts who rocketed to the International Space Station in early June for what was supposed to be just a few days before they came back to Earth. Now they might not get home until next year. 

It’s been two months, and Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore are floating high above the earth in the station, waiting to learn when they might see the ground again. It’s a bit like an outer space version of the 60s sitcom Gilligan’s Island, when a group of sightseers on a yacht were marooned on desert island. But at least the passengers of the SS Minnow didn’t need to bring their own air for breathing. 

The stranding is down to—wait for it—a Boeing spacecraft. It’s called the Starliner, but the name is much more dashing and cool than the reality. The company describes it as a 21st-century space capsule, and it is indeed larger and better equipped than the tiny capsules early astronauts used. 

Problems with the Starliner quickly became apparent as it approached the docking port on the ISS. The tanks holding the propulsion fuel started leaking, and then some of the thrusters went offline. In its current state, the Starliner is not capable of traveling back to earth, and it is not clear if it can be fixed. 

NASA held a press conference on August 7 to tell the public they hadn’t come to a decision about how to get the astronauts home. Spokesman Steve Stich said their first choice is to repair the Starliner and bring the ship and the crew home, but they’re drawing up contingency plans just the same. 

One solution might be to have the stranded crew wait until September when another rocket will be launched with a vehicle they can use to come back to Earth. But they’d have to wait until February of 2025 to do so. 

If they go with that plan, it will be a case of inventor and billionaire Elon Musk coming to the rescue. It is Musk’s SpaceX company that’s sending its “Crew Dragon” vehicle into orbit this fall. While the mission calls for the ship to bring four crew into space, it is possible to leave two seats vacant to make room for the stranded Americans to return.