Nasa has announced its SpaceX Crew-10 will launch in late March 2025 to return the stranded astronauts to Earth.

The two astronauts – Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams – have been aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since June 2024, having arrived there aboard Boeing’s Starliner. However, the mission was only ever meant to last 10 days.

Following years of delays, Boeing’s Starliner eventually lifted off in June 2024 and successfully docked with the ISS. But plans went awry when, during docking, Starliner suffered thruster failures and helium leaks.

This forced the two astronauts to remain on board the ISS while Nasa figured out how to get them home.

In August, Nasa announced it was considering bringing them back on a SpaceX Dragon capsule in 2025.

This return flight is now scheduled for late March 2025, meaning that what was meant to be a 10-day mission has now been stretched to more than nine months.

Nasa said the new SpaceX Dragon spacecraft was set to arrive to the company’s processing...