Donald Trump has asked Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring back two astronauts “stranded” in space, despite Nasa saying they are not stranded and will return to Earth by the end of March.
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. However, bringing them back now could leave the space station understaffed and jeopardize the science and maintenance of the outpost so a mission to bring several new astronauts there has been formulated.
This 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 that the launch of the Crew-10 mission has been put back slightly, to March.
Trump, by contrast, is seemingly intent on accelerating this process through his connection with Musk, the world’s richest man and key Trump ally who founded SpaceX. Musk also heads an “efficiency” department to slash elements of the federal government deemed unnecessary by the new administration.
Posting on X, another of his companies, Musk said that he was asked to bring the astronauts back by Trump and that he will do so.
“Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long,” he added.
