It looks like NASA officials might be seeing the writing on the wall for the very troubled Boeing Starliner, which has marooned two astronauts up in space for almost two months due to technical issues.

An unnamed “informed” source told Ars Technica that there’s a greater than 50 percent probability that the stranded astronauts will end up leaving the International Space Station on a SpaceX Dragon capsule, with another unnamed person telling the news outlet that the scenario is highly likely.

NASA officials are more cagey about what’s happening on the record, a marked contrast from previous weeks when they expressed confidence in the Starliner’s ability to safely bring back the astronauts.

This morning, SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 rocket on a resupply mission to the International Space Station.

NASA’s Crew Flight Test astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, docked at the ISS since June 6.

Crew-9 will be the first crewed launch on a Falcon 9 rocket after one of the vehicles experienced a rare failure in July.

SpaceX launched Starship on Integrated Flight Test 3 from their Starbase facility in South Texas. SpaceX has conducted static fire test for the next test flight. Credit: SpaceX.

Since the 1950s, nuclear rockets have been seen as a game-changer for space travel. Now, with the combined efforts of the NASA, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Lockheed Martin, mankind is close to launching the first nuclear spacecraft into orbit for testing, reports Interesting Engineering (IE).

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US last year, President Joe Biden announced that India and the US were collaborating to send an Indian astronaut to the ISS in 2024.

India’s Astronaut Selection Board had selected four astronauts from the group of test pilots from the Indian Air Force for the Gaganyaan mission, India’s first human space flight planned to take place next year.

“All four astronauts have undergone training on a spaceflight basic module in Russia. Currently, astronauts are undergoing training at ISRO’s Astronauts Training Facility (ATF) in Bengaluru for the Gaganyaan Mission,” Singh said.