NASA leaders announced Saturday that the two Boeing Starliner astronauts, Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams, are officially looking at a lengthy eight-month stay aboard the International Space Station.

Wilmore and Williams will have to wait it out until February after a flight readiness review determined that it's too risky for them to return to Earth on the Boeing spacecraft, NASA leaders announced Saturday.

The decision means the Starliner will return emptyhanded to Earth to free up a docking port for SpaceX Crew-9, which is scheduled to reach the space station on Sept. 24 for a six-month rotation mission. The Dragon capsule that Crew-9 will take to orbit is also now Williams and Wilmore's ride home.

"The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home uncrewed is result of a commitment to safety," NASA's Administrator Bill Nelson said during the news conference. "Our core value is safety, and it is our North Star. And I'm grateful to NASA and to Boeing, for their teams, for all the incredible and detailed work to get to this decision."

During the news conference, NASA's administrators said that safety is their main priority, but the government agency plans to use this experience as an opportunity to learn.

"I'll tell you that the NASA and Boeing team have made incredible technical progress in the model development that has gone on, the thruster testing, understanding material properties within the valve and the complicated fluid physics that are happening inside," NASA's Associate Administrator Jim Free said. "We are a learning organization, and I think we've demonstrated that here. We'll learn from this effort so that our crews who are at the top of the pyramid on these missions and their families can continue to know we've done that, and we'll always do our best."

The decision brings to an end the mystery surrounding the fate of Williams and Wilmore, the veteran NASA astronauts who arrived June 6 at the orbital outpost for what was supposed to only be a stay of little more than a week.

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What happened with the Boeing Starliner?

Some of the troubles began even before Starliner finally managed to launch on June 5 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on its inaugural crewed test flight.

Wilmore and Williams were only meant to be aboard the International Space Station for a little more than a week before heading back to Earth. But when they made it to the orbital outpost a day after the launch, engineers discovered a slew of helium leaks and problems with the craft's propulsion system that hampered Starliner's return to Earth.

Amid the scramble to figure out what to do about Starliner, NASA previously made the call to postpone the launch of SpaceX Crew-9.

That mission had been slated to take off earlier in August in a routine flight to replace the Crew-8 mission that's been at the space station since March. But because the four Crew-9 members can't arrive on a SpaceX Dragon until the docking port occupied by Starliner becomes available, that mission now won't launch any sooner than Sept. 24, NASA has said.

The delay gave the engineering and spaceflight specialists from NASA and Boeing time to collect and analyze Starliner data in preparation for the flight readiness review.

But it also means Starliner will still have to undock before the Dragon capsule arrives to make an autonomous return to Earth without its crew. Because Wilmore and Williams now find themselves in need of a ride back to the ground, Crew-9 will include just two members instead of four, NASA said.

The Starliner crew will then return on Feb. 25 with Crew-9 on the Dragon after the SpaceX astronauts complete their six-month rotation at the station.

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com

Ahjané Forbes is a reporter on the National Trending Team at USA TODAY. Ahjané covers breaking news, car recalls, crime, health, lottery and public policy stories. Email her at aforbes@gannett.com. Follow her on Instagram, Threads and X (Twitter) @forbesfineest

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