Boeing Starliner astronauts stranded in space for 80 days will not return home until 2025: NASA

The two Boeing Starliner astronauts who have been stranded in space for 80 days will stay for another six months, NASA officials announced Saturday.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are now expected to return to Earth in February, while the Starliner will be brought back unmanned.

Veteran astronauts Wilmore and Williams launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner back on June 5 — the maiden crewed voyage for the spacecraft — for what was supposed to be an eight-day mission docked to the International Space Station.

The test flight, however, encountered thruster failures and helium leaks so serious that NASA kept the capsule parked as engineers tried to find a solution.

Saturday’s announcement came on the pair’s 80th day in space.

The decision to bring the astronauts home in February was the result of a “commitment to safety,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson explained.

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But NASA is still “100 percent” certain the Starliner will launch with an astronaut crew again in the future, Nelson added.

Wilmore and Williams will return as part of a SpaceX Dragon Crew-9 mission, officials said.

Teams of engineers are still working to sort out the physics of the thruster issues that landed the Starliner into trouble, NASA Associate Administrator James Free added.

Free praised the NASA staff for their hard work in weeks leading up to NASA’s final call on the issue.

“This has not been an easy decision, but it is absolutely the right one,” Free insisted.

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Wilmore and Williams are expected to be at the International Space Station for eight months total, ISS manager Dana Weigel explained.

The pair will stay busy with science and station maintenance, Weigel said.

They have already done about 100 hours of work on different experiments.

Though most ISS missions last a maximum of six months, an eight month stay is well within the station’s normal capability, Weigel noted.

NASA opted to return the Starliner uncrewed despite Boeing’s insistence that the aircraft could return safely.

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The divergence came down to “technical expertise” as opposed to a trust issue between NASA and Boeing, Jim Free.

“It came down to a little disagreement about…risk,” NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Steve Stich agreed.

The close call was the result of “some tense conversations,” admitted Ken Bowersox, the Associate Administrator for Space Operations.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg has reassured NASA they are committed to working through the Starliner’s problems, Nelson told reporters.

Nelson’s own analysis of the Starliner debacle was informed by his observations of the 1986 Challenger disaster and the 2003 Columbia tragedy, he said.

Nelson, 81, was serving in the House of Representatives from Florida when the Challenger exploded.

He was a senator at the time of the Columbia disaster.

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