US President Donald Trump has tasked tech titan Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring back Nasa astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore from the International Space Station (ISS) and blamed the Joe Biden administration for "abandoning" them.
In what was supposed to be a 10-day mission, Williams and Wilmore have been stranded on the space station for seven months, since June 2024.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he has asked Musk 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 the Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon," the US President said.
Williams and Wilmore blasted off aboard Boeing's Starliner on June 5, 2024, for a presumed 8-10 day mission. However, thruster malfunctions and helium leaks forced Nasa to bring back the Starliner capsule on September 7, leaving the two astronauts aboard the station.
In September, a SpaceX four-seat Crew Dragon spacecraft was launched with just two astronauts, leaving two seats vacant for the return of Williams and Wilmore. The astronauts were supposed to return at the end of February.
However, the return has been delayed to late March to give SpaceX more time to ready a new spacecraft, SpaceX Crew-10, to ferry a replacement crew to the space station. If Williams and Wilmore are indeed brought back in late March, the astronauts will have logged around 300 days in space.
