Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday (Jan 28) said that US President Donald Trump had asked him to facilitate the return of the two Boeing Starliner astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been on the space station since June 2024, as soon as possible.

Advertisment

Musk called out former President Joe Biden's administration as "terrible" for leaving the duo "stranded" at the International Space Station (ISS) for so long, even though NASA had already roped in SpaceX months ago to return both astronauts as part of its Crew-9 mission.

"The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so. Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long," Musk wrote on X.

Also read | US President Trump offers federal employees to quit with eight months severance

Advertisment

NASA says the pair is not ‘stranded’

NASA had earlier determined that the duo would come home on Dragon because of lingering uncertainties surrounding Starliner.

NASA leadership repeatedly stressed on multiple forums that Wilmore and Williams were not “stranded,” but that the Starliner didn’t have enough assurances around it to support a crewed trip back to Earth.

Advertisment

Also read | Trump to meet Netanyahu at White House on Feb 4, Israel PM's office confirms

Sunita Williams says ‘she’s trying to remember how to walk’

Astronaut Sunita Williams, while speaking to students from Needham High School on January 27, said she is trying to remember how to walk as she awaits her return to Earth in spring.

Williams, a native of Needham, a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, shared what it was like living on the space station.

She said, “I've been up here long enough right now I've been trying to remember what it's like to walk. 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,” reported People Magazine.

Also read | Maha Kumbh and stampedes: A look at the deadly history of world's largest religious gathering

Williams admitted that she didn’t expect to be stuck in space for such a long time.

"We knew that it would be probably a month or so, honestly. But the extended stay was just a little bit different,” she said.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are expected to return in March 2025 as NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission has been rescheduled.

(With inputs from agencies)