Donald Trump has asked Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring back two astronauts “stranded” in space, despite the fact that there is already an agreed plan for SpaceX to bring them back in March and Nasa saying they are not stranded anyway.
Trump said that he had asked Musk and SpaceX to get “the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration”. The US president added on Truth Social: “Good luck Elon!!!”
The two astronauts are Nasa’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who were blasted into space in Boeing’s Starliner capsule in June, arriving at the International Space Station where they were expected to stay for just 10 days.
Technical issues, such as thrusters that did not work fully, delayed the duo’s return. The spacecraft returned to Earth without them and Wilmore and Williams have been at the space station ever since.
Nasa has insisted that the two astronauts are not stranded in space, akin to Matt Damon in The Martian, and that they could be returned at any time, but that bringing them back now could leave the space station understaffed and jeopardize the science and maintenance of the outpost, which is why new astronauts are generally brought up to replace returning ones.
Indeed, the Biden administration already did partner with SpaceX to bring the duo home. A SpaceX capsule (Crew-9) is currently docked at the space station and waiting for the replacement capsule (Crew-10). That mission, jointly conducted by Nasa and SpaceX, will bring four new astronauts to the space station and bring back Wilmore and Williams. Last month, Nasa said the launch was been put back slightly, to March, because SpaceX needed more time to prepare.
“Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long,” Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, nevertheless posted on social media.
