NASA's decision on what to do with Boeing Starliner astronauts will take at least another week

(CNN) – Astronauts on NASA's mission to the International Space Station will have to wait at least another week before finding out how and when they will return to Earth, after the decision was repeatedly delayed due to problems with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft.

At a further briefing on Wednesday, NASA officials said a decision should be made by the end of next week or early the following week.

“We’re at a point where we should be making a decision by the last week of August, if not sooner,” NASA Associate Administrator Ken Bowersox said when asked by CNN when they’ll make a decision.

Among the problems is the limited supply of “consumables,” such as food, aboard the space station.

NASA is currently considering two options for returning the Starliner crew to Earth: flying home on the Starliner, which is the vehicle that brought them to the space station on Boeing’s first crewed test flight, or using seats on a SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle that is scheduled to perform a routine personnel mission to the orbiting laboratory.

The US space agency acknowledged that there were internal disagreements about what to do. Representatives of Boeing did not participate in the press conference. The aerospace giant express repeatedly expressed confidence in Starliner's ability to make the return trip.

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two veteran NASA astronauts piloting Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, arrived at the space station on June 6 and have already been in space for nearly nine weeks longer than initially expected.

Last week, NASA officials made clear that SpaceX, Boeing’s rival under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, could be chosen to bring Williams and Wilmore home instead of Starliner. The move could potentially extend the astronauts’ stay at the space station by another six months, pushing their return to 2025, agency officials said at an Aug. 7 news conference.