NASA again delays Boeing Starliner's return from space station

June 18 (UPI) -- NASA said Tuesday that it has again pushed back the return trip to Earth of Boeing's repeatedly delayed Starliner mission.

"Teams have been very busy reviewing the data and executing the on-orbit flight test objectives for the mission," NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Steve Stich said Tuesday during pre-departure media teleconference.

Now, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, 61, and Suni Williams, 58, who embarked on the long-awaited Boeing Starliner mission launch June 5 and docked at the ISS the following day, will be working a week more in space.

The new plan has Williams and Wilmore departing the International Space Station at about 10:10 p.m. local time on June 25 to make the 6 1/2 hour return trip to Earth, with a possible 4:51 a.m. landing the following morning on Wednesday at the primary site: White Sands Space Harbor, N.M.

A backup landing date is July 2.

This is the Starliner's third delay in the return to Earth following a recent announcement that the spacecraft would disembark June 18 from the ISS.

But on Tuesday it was revealed the two astronauts have been kept busy with what NASA calls valuable work.

The International Space Station, said Stitch, "is happy to have Butch and Suni to be on board the space station."

"We're putting them to work and getting a lot of work out of them," he said.

The two astronauts originally were set to complete a full Starliner assessment while on board the ISS in just under a week, but the mission was lengthened due to a need to collect more information about the spacecraft and a series of mechanical issues.