Two U.S. astronauts stranded since June on the International Space Station (ISS) will not return to Earth until at least “the end of March,” NASA announced.

Originally planned as an eight-day mission, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have already been on the ISS for six months due to issues with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft that transported them in June.

After several weeks of testing on the Starliner, the U.S. space agency decided during the Northern Hemisphere summer to return the spacecraft without crew members and bring the two stranded astronauts back with SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.

The Crew-9 mission launched at the end of September with two passengers aboard—rather than the four originally planned—leaving two seats empty, and it docked with the ISS, where it now awaits its replacement with the Crew-10 mission.

However, NASA announced on Tuesday that the Crew-10 launch, scheduled for February, would be delayed until at least “the end of March” to allow NASA and SpaceX teams to complete the development of a new Dragon spacecraft.

This delay also postponed the return of the two astronauts to Earth, as well as the Crew-9 crew’s return.

If they return in March, Wilmore and Williams will have spent more than nine months in space instead of the planned eight days.

They were conducting the first test flight of Boeing’s Starliner when propulsion system issues arose.

Begoña Gómez, wife of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, appeared before the courts on Wednesday, where she denied any wrongdoing in her professional activities. This statement comes amid several investigations that have created a tense atmosphere around the president.

The investigations focus on whether Gómez, 49, used her relationship with Sánchez to lead a master’s program at the Complutense University of Madrid and secure private funding for it.

Additionally, it is being assessed whether, in exchange for this funding, she facilitated a businessman’s privileged access to public contracts.

Gómez’s lawyer, Antonio Camacho, defended his client, stating that “my client has always acted correctly, always in coordination with Complutense University, and at no time has she mediated in any way for a businessman to obtain public tenders.”

Camacho also emphasized that his client had wanted to testify from the beginning of the process but was prevented from doing so due to the lack of clarity regarding the investigation.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is holding an informal meeting on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders to discuss the “next steps” in the conflict with Russia.

The meeting is expected to include several heads of government, such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as well as senior officials from Denmark, the Netherlands, and Poland.

The United Kingdom will be represented by Foreign Secretary David Lammy, while the European Union will be represented by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa.

Speaking to the Italian parliament on Tuesday, Meloni stated that the meeting in Brussels was an “important opportunity to discuss the future of the conflict.”

On Wednesday, Rutte stated that the current priority was to provide Ukraine with weapons and resources to place the country in a stronger position.

“If we now discuss among ourselves what a potential agreement might look like, we will be making it easier for Russia,” he said.

Meanwhile, Scholz stated that discussing the deployment of troops to monitor a ceasefire “makes no sense.”

On Wednesday, before the European Parliament, von der Leyen emphasized that reinforcing Ukraine’s capabilities was “not just a moral imperative, but also a strategic one.”

According to von der Leyen, “The world is watching. Our friends, and especially our adversaries, are closely observing how we sustain our support for Ukraine.”

For Ukraine, it is a race against time, as Trump insists on a peace agreement to end the war (which he promises to resolve in one day) and suggests the possibility of suspending military aid to Kiev.

Ukrainian leaders, who had been adamantly opposed to the idea of peace negotiations with Russia, are now admitting the possibility, provided the country’s security is guaranteed.