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Trump says he asked Musk to ‘go get’ Mass. astronaut stalled in space
SpaceX was already slated to help return Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore from the International Space Station.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Tuesday that President Donald Trump has asked him to bring home “as soon as possible” the two astronauts — Massachusetts native Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore — who have been on the International Space Station since June.
Musk, now head of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, wrote on X that SpaceX will retrieve the “stranded” astronauts.
Several hours later, Trump confirmed his request on the website Truth Social without providing a specific timeframe, writing that “Elon will soon be on his way.”
SpaceX was already slated to bring Williams and Wilmore home, but the return was scheduled for no earlier than late March. The pair has been at the International Space Station since June, when they were expected to stay a week after traveling into space as the first pilots aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. But troubles with the capsule’s thruster prevented the astronauts from returning on their original schedule. Their stay has been repeatedly extended, with NASA officials repeatedly saying that the crew isn’t “stranded.”
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SpaceX’s Crew-9 capsule, which will bring Wilmore and Williams home, is already docked at the International Space Station, according to NPR. NASA has said it had to push back the replacement crew, Crew-10, to allow more time for the space agency and SpaceX to complete processing on a new spacecraft for the mission.
“NASA and SpaceX are expeditiously working to safely return the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore as soon as practical, while also preparing for the launch of Crew-10 to complete a handover between expeditions,” Cheryl Warner, a NASA spokeswoman said on Wednesday, according to NPR.
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Williams has stayed busy while at the space station, running the Falmouth Road Race remotely, doing interviews with local media, talking with students at Needham High School, and doing a spacewalk.
She recently told Needham High School students that her “extended stay” has come as “a little bit of a shock,” CBS Boston reports.
“I’ve been up here long enough right now I’ve been trying to remember what it’s like to walk,” Williams said. “I haven’t walked. I haven’t sat down. I haven’t laid down. You don’t have to. You can just close your eyes and float where you are right here.”
Williams, who attended Needham public schools and now has the Sunita L. Williams Elementary School named for her, has been on two other space missions since becoming a NASA astronaut in 1998. Until 2017, she was the record holder for cumulative spacewalking time by a woman astronaut.
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