Nasa delivers food, other supplies to astronauts stranded in space

A Roscosmos cargo spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday to deliver food, fuel and other supplies for the crew there, which includes two Nasa astronauts who are stuck on the station due to safety concerns over the Boeing Starliner capsule meant to take them home.

The unpiloted Progress 89 spacecraft arrived at the port of the Russian Zvezda Service module at 5:53 GMT, Nasa said. 

It was launched on Wednesday (August 14) on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Roscosmos spacecraft delivered about three tons of supplies for the crew aboard the ISS and will remain docked for approximately six months before departing for re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere to dispose of trash, Nasa said.

The space station is currently hosting the Expedition 71 crew as well the first two astronauts to fly Boeing's Starliner capsule, Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita Williams. 

Their test mission was initially expected to last about eight days on the station but has been drawn out by issues with Starliner's propulsion system that have increasingly called into question the spacecraft's ability to safely return them to Earth as planned.

The Nasa officials recently said the two astronauts who arrived at the ISS in June could return on SpaceX's Crew Dragon in February 2025 if Starliner is still deemed unsafe to return to Earth.