Elon Musk and President Donald Trump recently used social media to express their concern that astronauts stranded at the space station should return “as soon as possible,” despite NASA’s plan to bring them back in a couple of months on a SpaceX vehicle. They criticized the previous administration for NASA’s decision in August to return Boeing’s faulty Starliner capsule from the International Space Station without astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams onboard.
Musk tweeted, “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,” while Trump added on Truth Social, “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!!!”
It remains uncertain if these statements will impact NASA’s timeline, as neither specified if the White House would direct NASA to change its plan. Before Trump and Musk commented on the situation, NASA had already assigned SpaceX to bring back Wilmore and Williams from the ISS during the Biden administration.
NASA adjusted its astronaut rotation by sending the Starliner capsule back empty and removing two astronauts from SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission to accommodate the delayed return of Wilmore and Williams, initially scheduled for February. NASA did not address whether it would revise mission plans following the statements from Trump and Musk in a statement to CNBC.
While Musk and Trump described the astronauts as “stranded” and “abandoned” on the ISS, NASA has had a spacecraft at the station since September that could return the crew at any time — a Dragon capsule operated by SpaceX. Claims by Musk that “the Biden administration left them there” and Trump that the astronauts “have been waiting for many months” are inaccurate.
The ISS has been continuously staffed by Expedition crews for 25 years, with each expedition typically lasting about six months. SpaceX began flying crews for NASA in 2020, sending up four astronauts at a time. Crews work until the next group arrives, and a ceremonial “handover” occurs before the departing crew returns to Earth.
NASA deemed Boeing’s Starliner too risky to return Wilmore and Williams, who were part of Expedition 72. They were expected to return on SpaceX’s Dragon alongside astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. NASA recently postponed the launch of SpaceX’s Crew-10 mission to “late March” from February to complete processing of the Dragon capsule.
During a recent NASA broadcast, astronauts onboard the ISS, including Williams and Wilmore, discussed their experiences. Wilmore mentioned that they have a lot of science experiments and spacewalks to do, emphasizing that they are not worried and enjoy working in space.
