Houston NASA announced on Saturday that 2 Us astronauts Barry Butch Wilmore and Sunita Sunni Williams who arrived at the International Space Station aboard Boeing starer will return home with SpaceX instead NASA has decided that but and Sunni will return with crew9 next February and Starliner will return un crw said NASA administrator Bill Nelson the delay in their return is due to Thruster malfunctions on the Boeing spacecraft this situation presents a new public relations challenge for Boeing as the the astronauts will now spend eight months in orbit rather than the planned 8 Days despite the spacecraft's successful launch in early June starliners propulsion system issues have led NASA to indefinitely postpone the astronauts return engineers at Boeing and NASA grew concerned that the Starliner spacecraft might lack the necessary propulsive power to exit orbit and begin its descent back to Earth on Saturday NASA officials announced a rare decision the astronauts would return not on their own spacecraft but aboard a previously scheduled space EXP vehicle in February under the revised plan spacex's crew 9 Mission which is set to launch in late September will carry only two passengers instead of the planned four the spacecraft will remain docked at the ISS until February when it will return with its own crew plus the two stranded astronauts this adjustment adds to Boeing's mounting public relations issues as the company already faces scrutiny over safety and quality control in its airplane division NASA had originally commissioned new new spacecraft from both Boeing and SpaceX a decade ago following the retirement of the space shuttle to ensure reliable crew transport to and from the ISS