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Suni Williams and Butch Willmore were meant to spend about a week on the International Space Station, then return to Earth in the Boeing Starliner capsule that took them there. They'll now spend roughly an extra fortnight in orbit while Nasa tries to work out why the capsule leaked helium on its way to space and five of its 28 reaction control thrusters failed as it was docking with the ISS. Neither problem is expected to endanger the astronauts as their craft's heat shield glows on reentry at 22,000 mph, but both are embarrassing for Boeing and Nasa, which had to postpone last week's launch several times. SpaceX's upstart Crew Dragon spaceship has meanwhile been taking humans to the ISS without incident since 2020. Before that it was tested according to the maxim 'move fast and break things'. The Starliner is moving slowly and still botching things.
