The two NASA astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station since their Boeing spacecraft ran into problems in June will have to remain there even longer, the agency announced Tuesday.
NASA has pushed back the next astronaut crew's launch to the ISS from February to no earlier than late March to allow more time to "complete processing" on a new SpaceX spacecraft that will be used for the mission.
Four crew members aboard the station must wait for the arrival of the next crew before they can depart on a separate SpaceX Dragon capsule. They include NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who launched on the challenge-plagued first test flight of Boeing's Starliner vehicle.
The two originally intended to spend about a week at the space station but will wind up having lived and worked in orbit for more than nine months, including the added time for the latest delay.
New crews typically overlap with departing crews for a short time at the ISS in what's known as a handover period, during which astronauts can exchange information about ongoing science experiments, maintenance projects and other protocols.
When Williams and Wilmore do finally leave after that handover, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will fly home with them.
Officials said the new Dragon capsule expected to launch in late March should arrive at NASA's processing facility in Florida in early January.
"Fabrication, assembly, testing, and final integration of a new spacecraft is a painstaking endeavor that requires great attention to detail," Steve Stich, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager, said in a statement.
When the capsule launches -- a mission known as Crew-10 -- it is expected to carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi. Until then, the foursome will continue training for their mission at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA said.