Why can’t the stranded Boeing astronauts return sooner than March or is it just inconvenient to bring them home sooner?
They *might* have survived the reentry aboard the Boeing thing they rode up there, but temp in the cabin was dangerous. Boeing and NASA were lucky the craft made the return trip.
Procedure is to always have one craft available as a life raft of sorts, in case of major ISS failures.
There were two people in rotation to come down who were ahead of them. Had procedure not been followed, they'd have returned home (already delayed) but the remaining crews would have been up there with no way out.
They've got enough groceries for six months or something, and there's way to put cargo up there.
Thanks to SpaceX, it's all getting handled, we're blessed to have Musk and his companies.