Nasa gives urgent update on two astronauts that have been left stranded in space

Two NASA astronauts have been left stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) after Boeing's Starliner capsule ran into a series of technical problems.

Astronauts Barry Wilmore, 61, and Sunita Williams, 58, have been onboard the spacecraft since it first fired off from Florida on 6 June.

They were sent up with the Starliner for the first crewed docking of the spacecraft almost 50 days ago and were supposed to carry out a test mission which was originally scheduled to last just over a week - until they ran into trouble.

There were several delays to the undocking of Boeing's capsule due to faulty thrusters, which was then followed up by a series of helium leaks which prompted safety concerns.

Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams have been stuck for seven weeks (Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP)

Wilmore and Williams are waiting for the travel giant and NASA to come up with a solution, however, engineers are struggling to determine exactly what is wrong.

And until they can work out what has happened, the astronauts are stuck up there.

Various dates have been set for the Starliner's return to Earth, however,

NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said they weren't ready to announce a return date just yet.

He gave an update on the situation today - explaining that there wasn't really much to fill people in on.

He said: "We don't have a major announcement today relative to a return date. We're making great progress, but we're just not quite ready to do that.

"Our focus today...is to return Butch and Suni on Starliner. I think we're starting to close in on those final pieces of the fight rationale to make sure we can come home safely and that's our primary focus right now.

"We’ll come home when we’re ready."

Boeing and NASA have carried out numerous tests on the faulty thrusters which have caused problems during the Starliner's maiden voyage.

The Starliner was launched on 6 June but has ran into a series of technical problems on it's first manned mission (Paul Hennessy/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A spare has been extensively examined in the New Mexico desert to try and work out what's going wrong up in space.

Stich said that further analysis on the results will be completed this weekend, however, a NASA review won't take place until the first week of August - and Wilmore and Williams will have to wait for that before they can come home.

But he did say that the US space agency is also weighing up other options too, such as bringing the astronauts back on another spacecraft.

As it stands, the pair are safe on the Starliner for now, Sitch told Sky News.

Before the series of unfortunate events took place, NASA has said that the spacecraft would be suitable for a 45-day stay.

However, this has now obviously already been exceeded.

NASA then said it would be viable for Wilmore and Williams to stay for 90 days, but even if they ended up surpassing this, the Starliner is approved to stay for 21 days.

Sitch said there were sufficient supplies and resources for them, while there were no risks to anyone onboard.