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Nasa said on Wednesday it is considering tapping SpaceX to shuttle two astronauts back to Earth from the International Space Station following technical difficulties with the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft they took to get there.

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, who were supposed to return to Earth nearly two months ago, may now stay at the station until February. SpaceX had a mission to the space station planned for later this month to deliver crew and supplies, but the US space agency has now pushed it back until September to weigh whether it should bring the astronauts home.

The SpaceX mission may carry only two astronauts aboard instead of four, leaving two seats to ferry Wilmore and Williams home early next year. Officials from Nasa said they were still evaluating which spacecraft to use to bring Williams and Wilmore back, and the agency would decide in mid-August.

“We’re in a new situation in that we have multiple options,” said Nasa associate administrator Ken Bowersox. “We don’t just have to bring a crew back on Starliner. We can bring them back on another vehicle.”

“Reasonable people could take either path,” he added, but the agency was “getting more serious about evaluating our other options”.

The move would be a blow to Boeing, which is being scrutinised by regulators over the quality and safety of its processes to manufacture commercial aeroplanes. It plead guilty in July to defrauding the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Starliner is meant to compete with billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring crew and supplies to the space station. But the programme has had its own hurdles, coming in billions of dollars over budget and with multiple launch delays even before Williams and Wilmore lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on June 5, with plans for an eight-day mission.

Since lift-off, helium has leaked from the Starliner and five of its thrusters have functioned improperly. Nasa officials said scientists and engineers were studying the problems to determine their cause.

If Nasa decides to transport Wilmore and Williams back to Earth via SpaceX, Boeing and the agency will need to reconfigure certain software parameters so that Starliner can undock from the space station automatically for its return, rather than requiring crew members to steer.

While Boeing was “very confident” that Starliner can bring the astronauts home, Bowersox said, some staff at Nasa were “more conservative”.

“The Nasa community in general would like to understand a little bit more of the root cause and the physics,” said Steve Stich, manager for Nasa’s commercial crew programme.

Boeing said on Wednesday that, “we still believe in Starliner’s capability and its flight rationale”, a term that means it is safe for a mission to continue. “If Nasa decides to change the mission, we will take the actions necessary to configure Starliner for an uncrewed return.”

Darryl George of Mont Belvieu, Texas, faced multiple suspensions for not cutting his hair.

Michael Wyke/AP

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Michael Wyke/AP

Darryl George of Mont Belvieu, Texas, faced multiple suspensions for not cutting his hair.

Michael Wyke/AP

A federal judge has dismissed most of the claims in a lawsuit filed by a Black Texas high school student who alleged that school officials had violated his civil rights by insisting he cut his hair to fit school policy.

Darryl George’s battle with Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu (a town roughly 40 minutes outside of Houston) began last summer when he faced numerous in-school suspensions over his natural locs.

School officials said George’s locs fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes, according to local media reports, which violates the district’s dress code for male students.

George missed most of his regular classes in his junior year, spending the day in in-school suspension.

“He has to sit on a stool for eight hours in a cubicle,” Darryl’s mother, Darresha George, told The Associated Press at the time. “That’s very uncomfortable. Every day he’d come home, he’d say his back hurts because he has to sit on a stool.”

As a result, George and his mother sued the school district, the district superintendent, his principal and assistant principal as well as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton for violation of the state’s CROWN Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair), which bans race-based hair discrimination.

George was initially suspended just a day before the Texas law went into effect statewide on Sept 1 of last year.

In the Tuesday ruling, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown dismissed the claims against Abbott, Paxton, and the district and school employees.

Brown also dismissed claims that enforcement was primarily being done against Black students, as well as the claim that George’s First Amendment rights had been violated as a result of the district policy. The judge said the school had not shown a “persistent, widespread practice of disparate, race-based enforcement” with its policy. When it came to the free speech claim, he determined there was no precedent to demonstrate that hair length is supported under the First Amendment.

However, George’s claim of sex discrimination stood. In his ruling, Brown wrote: “What is the rationale for the dress code’s distinction between male and female students? Because the District does not provide any reason for the sex-based distinctions in its dress code, the claim survives this initial stage.”

Brown acknowledged that the state’s case had its issues, invoking a similar case from 1970 in which the judge concluded that “the presence and enforcement of the hair-cut rule causes far more disruption of the classroom instructional process than the hair it seeks to prohibit.”

Brown wrote: “Regrettably, so too here.”