NASA noted that while the astronauts’ eight-month stay on the ISS will be longer than expected, others have remained on the ISS for as long as 12 months. While there, Wilmore and Williams will be involved in research, station maintenance, and potentially a few spacewalks.

Boeing launched the first crewed Starliner mission — a test mission — on June 5, with issues starting around 24 hours later. In the final phase of approach to the ISS, five of the 28 thrusters on Starliner went offline, and several helium leaks sprung up in the spacecraft’s propulsion system. Since then, NASA and Boeing engineers have been engaged in a root cause analysis, conducting tests of the thrusters onboard the spacecraft and testing a replica engine here on Earth.