NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are still aboard the International Space Station, after their days-long work trip turned into a months-long staycation of sorts.
And while NASA has emphasized that the pair are not stranded, the President of the United States seems to think the opposite, suggesting he wants a quicker return for the crew, who are scheduled to return to Earth on March 20, and tapping his pal Elon Musk to get it done sooner.
On Tuesday night, Donald Trump posted to his social media platform, Truth Social, announcing that he had asked Elon Musk’s SpaceX to return Williams and Wilmore.
“I have just asked Elon Musk and Space X to ‘go get’ the two brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration,” Trump posted.
“They have been waiting for many months on Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon!!!”
On Wednesday, Musk shared a screengrab of the post to his own social platform, X, adding a salute emoji.
He also shared a post of his own, writing “We will do so,” in response to Trump’s request.
The astronauts were left on the ISS because of problems with Boeing’s Starliner capsule, which led NASA in August to tap Musk’s SpaceX for their return instead.
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Wilmore and Williams flew Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to the ISS last summer for an eight-day test mission that, instead, has lasted almost a year because of problems with the craft’s propulsion system.
NASA in August, during Former President Joe Biden’s administration, deemed Starliner too risky to bring them back to Earth and tapped SpaceX to return them on a Crew Dragon spacecraft. Biden and his White House had no involvement in the agency’s decision-making on the mission.
That craft is already docked with the space station, having flown there for NASA’s Crew-9 astronaut rotation mission in September with empty seats for Wilmore and Williams. In a statement provided to Reuters, NASA said they are preparing the launch of the Crew-10 capsule, whose crew will receive a handover from six Crew-9 astronauts before they return to Earth.
Wilmore and Williams are among seven astronauts on the ISS, and they remain healthy and busy with routine scientific research aboard the orbiting outpost, NASA has said.
The astronauts’ original February departure date on Crew-9 was delayed to late March because SpaceX needed more time “to complete processing” of a new Crew Dragon capsule that will replace theirs for the Crew-10 mission, NASA said in December.
And while the astronauts’ unexpected stay has faced plenty of delays, it’s not unusual for space crews to end up on unexpected extension. Strenuous, but standard, training prepares astronauts for lengthy stays in space.
It is unclear whether Trump’s demand would mean NASA bringing Crew-9 back to Earth before the Crew-10 capsule arrives, or SpaceX launching Crew-10 earlier than planned. While NASA appeared to affirm the astronauts’ return plan remains unchanged, it did not answer a question from Reuters on whether the Crew-10 launch date would be sooner.
Returning Crew-9 to Earth before Crew-10’s arrival would mean NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who flew to the ISS with a Russian crew in September, would be the only American aboard the station, a rare staffing imbalance that NASA has said complicates maintenance of the station’s U.S. components.
— With files from Reuters
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