Two astronauts stranded in space for more than 60 days may have to keep orbiting the Earth until early 2025 ... because their Boeing spacecraft appears unable to bring them home.
NASA is now saying Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams may need to be rescued from the International Space Station by a spacecraft from a rival company ... Elon Musk's SpaceX.
The pair took a Boeing Starline spacecraft to the ISS in June but the maiden voyage has been a disaster ... with helium leaks and thruster failures preventing them from taking the spaceship home.
Butch and Suni were only supposed to be on the ISS for a week ... but it's looking increasingly likely they will be up there until sometime next year.
NASA says the astronauts may need to come back on the SpaceX Dragon Crew-9 mission ... the spacecraft won't launch until September and wouldn't be able to bring Butch and Suni home until February.
This new plan has not been set in stone yet ... there are lots of parties involved here, and a Boeing crew coming back on a SpaceX mission would be a huge embarrassment for Boeing.
For now, Butch and Suni remain on the ISS ... helping other astronauts with tasks.
The clock is ticking though, because they are causing extra strain on ISS supplies.