US President Donald Trump, on Wednesday (Mar 19), said that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will be visiting the White House once they “get better”. 

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Trump said this in an interview with Fox News on being asked when both astronauts will visit the Oval Office.

“They have to get better. When you are up there (in space), you have no pull in your muscle and gravity. You can lift a thousand pounds like this,” Trump said.

“They have to get better. It will be a little tough for them. It's not that easy. They were up for a long time and when they do, they will come to the Oval Office,” he said.

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Earlier today, the White House, in a post on X said, "PROMISE MADE, PROMISE KEPT: President Trump pledged to rescue the astronauts stranded in space for nine months. Today, they safely splashed down in the Gulf of America, thanks to @ElonMusk, @SpaceX, and @NASA!"

The SpaceX craft carrying Wilmore and Sunita Williams detached from the orbital outpost at 0505 GMT, ending their prolonged mission. The NASA duo was joined onboard by American Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

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Musk congratulates SpaceX and NASA

SpaceX CEO Musk congratulated the teams of his company and NASA "for another safe astronaut return". 

He also hailed Trump in his post for "prioritising the mission."

"Thank you to @POTUS for prioritizing this mission,!" wrote Musk. 

The Tech billionaire, in an interview with Fox News, also claimed that he had earlier extended an offer to President Joe Biden's administration to bring the astronauts back, but was "rejected for political reasons."  

"We definitely offered to return the astronauts earlier. There is no question about that. The astronauts were only supposed to be there for eight days and they have been there for almost 10 months. Obvioulsy, that doesn't make any sense. SpaceX could have brought the astronauts after a few months at most and we made that offer to Biden administration. It was rejected for political reasons and that's just a fact," he said. 

(With inputs from agencies)