Astronauts Stuck in Space: A Timeline | Space

NASA and Boeing have avoided the terms “stuck” and “stranded,” but either way, two astronauts are still in space long after they planned to be.

Sunita “Suni” Williams, the mission’s pilot, and Barry “Butch” Wilmore, the mission’s commander, left for the International Space Station in Starliner on June 5. The mission, whose goal is to make sure that people can safely fly to the ISS in Starliner, was intended to last a week, but now they are expected to return home in February. Williams and Wilmore are the first two astronauts sent into space by Boeing, which has a $4.2 billion contract with NASA as part of a move to privatize space flight in the U.S.

The process leading up to the Boeing voyage met repeated technical issues, and more issues during its historic test mission have left the company’s first-ever crew in space, where they are expected to be until at least February. While it does seem like the purpose of a test run is to find those issues, one would hope that they could also be resolved.

It’s the latest blow to the reputation of Boeing, long considered the gold standard in American manufacturing, following two deadly 737 Max 8 airplane crashes and several recent safety incidents. The crashes, which took place in 2018 and 2019, killed 346 people. Then, in January, a 737 Max 9 had to make an emergency landing when a…