US President Donald Trump has instructed SpaceX to expedite the return of NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) since June 2024.
Elon Musk wrote on his social media page X:
“The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so.”
Wilmore and Williams arrived in orbit on the Starliner spacecraft, which was launched on June 5 by the Boeing Corporation. The flight was the first manned test of the new vehicle. The crew was originally scheduled to return to earth in as little as two weeks, but a malfunction in the manoeuvring engines led to repeated postponements.
In December, NASA announced that additional time is needed to prepare for the launch of the new Crew Dragon, and therefore the flight of Crew-10 will not take place before the end of March 2025.
Against this backdrop, Musk was horrified that the administration of former US President Joe Biden had abandoned Crew for such an extended period of time.
