President Donald Trump has called on Elon Musk and SpaceX to “go get” two astronauts who he claims were “abandoned in space by the Biden Administration.”
NASA’s Boeing Starliner Calypso took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on June 5, 2024, for what was supposed to be an eight-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
However, more than six months have passed, and astronauts Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore have yet to return.
As Calypso neared the ISS, a critical thruster failure occurred, leading NASA to determine that bringing Williams and Wilmore back aboard the spacecraft as originally planned on June 14 would be too risky.
Their return was initially delayed, with a revised plan arranging for Williams and Wilmore to come back aboard SpaceX Crew-9. However, NASA later announced another schedule change in a blog post, pushing their retrieval even further.
According to the update on NASA’s website, the SpaceX Crew-10 mission is now “targeting no earlier than late March 2025 to launch four crew members to the ISS.”
“The change gives NASA and SpaceX teams time to complete processing on a new Dragon spacecraft for the mission. The new spacecraft is set to arrive to the company’s processing facility in Florida in early January,” the agency explained.
As a result, Williams and Wilmore’s return to Earth has been postponed until at least March 2025.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has seemingly urged Elon Musk to expedite their return. Posting on Truth Social last night (January 28), he stated:
*”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.
“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!!!”*
Musk acknowledged the post on Twitter earlier today, responding with a salute emoji.
Although Trump has criticized “the Biden Administration” for “virtually abandoning” the astronauts, NASA maintains that it, along with SpaceX, “assessed various options for managing the next crewed handover, including using another Dragon spacecraft and manifest adjustments.”
“After careful consideration, the team determined that launching Crew-10 in late March, following completion of the new Dragon spacecraft, was the best option for meeting NASA’s requirements and achieving space station objectives for 2025,” the agency stated in its blog post.
