Watch: Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft is returning home empty

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are stuck aboard the International Space Station (ISS) after their test flight on Boeing’s Starliner went awry. This weekend, NASA announced that these astronauts will remain aboard the ISS until February, when SpaceX’s Dragon will retrieve them as part of the Crew-9 mission.

Eight months is a long time to be in space, especially since the astronauts were only supposed to be on board the ISS for eight days. But this length of time away from our home planet isn’t totally unprecedented. Some astronauts have stayed aboard the ISS for as long as a year. So, until February — when eight months will have passed since the initial test flight — Wilmore and Williams will do research aboard the ISS, help with space station maintenance and maybe take a few space walks. 

What went wrong with the Starliner anyway, and how has NASA responded to the incident with Boeing? Watch today’s TechCrunch Minute to find out.