NASA officials admitted that the problems with the spacecraft were more serious than first thought, and that the astronauts may not travel home on the Boeing vehicle, after all.
The agency is exploring a backup option for the astronauts, Suni Wiliams and Butch Wilmore, to hitch a ride back to Earth on a vehicle built by Boeing’s competitor SpaceX instead. Their stay in orbit, which was to be as short as eight days, may extend into next year.
The announcement adds more headaches and embarrassment to a troubled year for Boeing, an aerospace giant that has billions of dollars of federal contracts in defense and space and that builds commercial jets flown around the world
