The return mission for two astronauts stuck in space has been hit with another delay, U.S. space agency NASA said on Thursday.

The two crew members of the Starliner, U.S. astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams, have been on the International Space Station since June, although they were supposed to be on board for only one week.

NASA and SpaceX called off Wednesday’s launch attempt of the agency’s Crew-10 mission to the ISS due to a last-minute technical issue.

The U.S. space agency said the new launch window would be Friday at 7:03 p.m. (2303 GMT) at the earliest.

Thursday was waved off due to high winds and precipitation forecasted in the flight path of Dragon Crew-10, including NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

They were set to replace the Crew-9 mission once they arrived at the ISS.

NASA said Crew-9, with NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore, along with Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, were now set to depart the space station no earlier than March 19.

This is pending weather off the coast of Florida.

Ms Williams and Mr Wilmore arrived at the ISS at the beginning of June on the first manned test flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.

They were only meant to stay on the ISS for a week, but numerous technical problems with the craft left them stranded there.

The Boeing-produced Starliner was a partially reusable spacecraft that consists of a capsule around three metres high for the crew and a service module.

Unlike the Crew Dragon vehicle built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, the Starliner did not land on water but on dry land. 

(dpa/NAN)