Stranded Boeing Starliner astronauts to remain in space for another six months – what it means for the future of commercial spaceflight

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Sunita Williams and Barry "Butch" Wilmore must have breathed a sigh of relief when they opened the hatch and floated into the International Space Station (ISS) on June 6, 2024. It was the first time the Starliner spacecraft they arrived on had carried humans.

Starliner was built by aerospace giant Boeing and was the second commercial spacecraft to carry astronauts to the ISS, following Crew Dragon, built by Elon Musk's SpaceX company. SpaceX has already completed ...