Modern Flying Space

A Brief History of Astronauts Stuck in Space

NASA’s Boeing Starliner crew is far from the first to require a Plan B to return from orbit.

Ben Evans

Monday, September 09, 2024 at 02:41 PM ET

Verified

Edited By: tccjeremy

Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule will return from its test flight without a crew. [Credit: NASA]

Key Takeaways:

When NASA announced August 24 that Boeing Starliner astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams will remain in space another six months, miss Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s holidays with their families, and land in a different spacecraft, it stirred headlines worldwide.

But theirs is not the first mission to be unexpectedly lengthened or hit by unforeseen circumstances.