President Donald Trump has tasked SpaceX founder Elon Musk with returning two stranded veteran NASA astronauts to Earth after their Boeing Starliner — the company’s first manned spacecraft — malfunctioned while approaching the International Space Station (ISS) last June.
In a post on Truth Social Tuesday night, Trump blasted former President Joe Biden for “virtually abandon[ing]” astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams and said he asked Musk to focus on sending a spacecraft to the ISS to retrieve the American astronauts.
“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,” Trump wrote. “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!!!”
Wilmore and Williams initially left Earth for the ISS on June 5 for what was supposed to be an eight-day mission. The Boeing Starliner carrying them, however, sprang leaks and lost multiple thrusters as it approached the ISS. After initially considering returning the astronauts on the Boeing Starliner — which Boeing insisted would be safe — NASA ultimately decided against it and hatched a plan late last year to use Musk’s SpaceX Dragon capsule to retrieve the astronauts. That plan was delayed in December when NASA and SpaceX mission teams said they needed more time to prepare the SpaceX craft, CNN reported.
A mission to return Wimore and Williams was pushed back from February to “no earlier than late March,” NASA said in a statement in December. It’s unclear if Trump asked Musk to bring the astronauts back to Earth sooner than what NASA outlined in its December statement. Musk said on X on Tuesday that Trump requested the astronauts be brought home “as soon as possible.”
“The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so,” Musk wrote. “Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.”
During an interview with former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson earlier this month, Wilmore and Williams said they “have plenty of clothes” and “are well fed.”
“It’s just a great team and — no, it doesn’t feel like we’re castaways,” said Williams, adding, “Eventually we want to go home because we left our families a little while ago, but we have a lot to do while we’re up here.”
