Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who traveled to the International Space Station in Boeing’s Starliner capsule in June 2024, now have to wait until their replacements arrive next week before they can leave later this month.
In a message from the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump told Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, the two NASA astronauts stuck in space, who are about to return to Earth after more than nine months at the International Space Station (ISS), that “we love you, and we’re coming up to get you.”
“I gave Elon permission a week ago. I said, ‘You know, we have two people up there that Biden and Kamala (Harris) left up there’. And he knows it very well. I said, ‘Are you ready to get them?’ He said, ‘Yeah’,” he said.
The President suggested that SpaceX might send a mission to bring the astronauts back, saying, “Elon is getting a ship ready to go up and get them. He’s getting ready to go, I think in two weeks.”
Wilmore and Williams thought they would be gone for just a week or so when they launched last June in Boeing’s new Starliner capsule, which was flying with a crew for the first time after many delays. The Starliner had so many problems getting to the space station that NASA decided it was too dangerous to carry anyone, so it flew back empty.
In September 2024, Musk’s SpaceX launched a Crew Dragon capsule to rescue the astronauts, and it docked with the ISS. But NASA decided to delay their return.
Last month, NASA said the next crew would launch in a used capsule instead, and the liftoff was moved up to March 12. The two crews will spend about a week together on the space station before Wilmore and Williams leave with NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov.
Last month, NASA said the next crew would launch in a used capsule instead, and the launch was moved up to March 12. The two crews will spend about a week together on the space station before Wilmore and Williams leave with NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov.
On a lighter note, Trump told reporters on Thursday that he hoped Williams and Wilmore “like each other, maybe they love each other, I don’t know.”
“But they’ve been left up there. Think about it. And I see the woman with the wild hair, good, solid hair she’s got. No kidding, no games with her hair,” he joked.
Trump then asked reporters playfully: “Should I go on that journey just to be on the ship when we stop?”
“If that’s an option, yes,” one reporter answered, saying that Trump would be the “first president in space.”
Not very impressed with the idea, Trump replied, “When they come back, I’ll greet them. How about that?”
Trump’s latest message comes after both he and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk blamed the previous Biden administration for the astronauts’ situation.
When Musk claimed that the Biden administration refused his offer to help bring the astronauts home, Wilmore said in a press conference on Tuesday, “I can only say that what Elon Musk says is absolutely true. I believe him.”
