US President Donald Trump has requested that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk bring back the two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) for nearly 200 days, instead of the originally planned eight days. The return flights have been repeatedly delayed due to a series of technical issues.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote on Tuesday, “I just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to ‘bring back’ the two brave astronauts who were left in space by the Biden Administration.”
Trump added that “Elon is on his way” soon.
In a subsequent post, the US tech mogul confirmed that he had been asked to rescue the astronauts. Musk tweeted, “@POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station back home as soon as possible. We will do that.”
Musk also wrote, “Terrible that the Biden Administration left them there for so long.”
In another post, Musk shared a screenshot of Trump’s original post and accompanied it with a greeting emoji.
Wilmore (61) and Williams (58) launched on June 5 aboard the Boeing Starliner to the ISS. However, NASA engineers soon discovered four helium leaks and issues with the propulsion system’s pressurization. After days of testing and discussions, NASA decided on August 24 to leave the astronauts on the station and return the Starliner without the crew via remote control.
In December, NASA announced that the Crew-10 launch would be delayed until the end of March to give SpaceX time to complete a new spacecraft. This delay was expected to push back the return of Crew-9 to early April.
Industry rumors suggest further delays for Crew-10, which could indicate that SpaceX might use a different Crew Dragon, possibly the one prepared for the private astronaut mission Ax-4, which is set to launch in April for Axiom Space.
The astronauts themselves have demonstrated a professional attitude towards the situation. “I won’t get worked up over things I can’t control” Wilmore said in a briefing in September, with Williams adding, “You just focus on the next activity of the day and take it on. That’s what we do. We’re professionals.