NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore (R) and Suni Williams, outfitted in Boeing spacesuits, exit the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center en route to Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida for the Crew Flight Test launch of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on June 5, 2024. (Photo by MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images)
OAN Staff Blake Wolf 1:51 PM – Wednesday, January 29, 2025
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump expressed his desire to enlist Elon Musk in expediting the return of two NASA astronauts stranded aboard the International Space Station for nearly eight months. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been in orbit since last June, a mission initially only planned for a week.
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Issues with the Starliners, Boeing’s inaugural capsule spacecraft, have prevented the astronauts from returning to Earth safely.
“I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to ‘go get’ the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration. 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!!!” Trump stated in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday.
I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to “go get” the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration. They have been waiting for many months on Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) January 29, 2025
Musk replied to Trump’s request in an X post saying, “The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so.”
“It’s unfortunate that the Biden administration has left them there for so long,” Musk remarked.
The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so. Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.
Previous rescue missions had been scheduled for February, but NASA later announced that additional time was required to prepare the capsule for Crew-10, estimating a launch readiness in March.
NASA typically maintains at least one crew on the space station for smoother transitions.
“NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 is now targeting no earlier than late March 2025 to launch four crew members to the International Space Station,” stated the agency in a press release. “The agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission with NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will return to Earth following Crew-10’s arrival at the orbital laboratory.”
In the meantime, the stranded crew has remained positive, asserting that they do not feel “abandoned” as they were trained for extended missions.
“We have plenty of clothing,” Wilmore noted. “We are well-fed.”
“It’s been a joy working up here,” Williams remarked. “We don’t feel like castaways. While we certainly wish to return home to our families, we have much to accomplish during our time up here.”
“Having been up here for so long, I’m trying to recall what walking feels like,” Williams shared. “I haven’t walked. I haven’t sat down or laid down. You don’t need to; you can just close your eyes and float right where you are.”
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