Elon Musk speaks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and guests at a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship, in Brownsville, Texas, U.S., November 19, 2024.
Brandon Bell | Via Reuters
Elon Musk and President Donald Trump took to social media this week declaring that astronauts left at the space station must return “as soon as possible,” despite NASA’s plan to bring the pair back in a couple months on a SpaceX vehicle.
Both blamed the previous presidential administration for the decision NASA made in August to return Boeing’s faulty Starliner capsule from the International Space Station without astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams onboard.
“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 late Tuesday.
“I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to ‘go get’ the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration. They have been waiting for many months on @Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon!!!” Trump added shortly after, on Truth Social.
But it’s unclear if the statements would actually change the space agency’s timeline. Neither specified whether the White House would order NASA to change its plan.
During former President Joe Biden’s administration, months before Trump and Musk spoke up on the situation, NASA tasked SpaceX with returning Wilmore and Williams from the ISS.
The agency adjusted its rotation of astronauts as a result: It sent the Starliner capsule back empty and removed two astronauts from SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission to make room for a delayed return by Wilmore and Williams, originally targeted for February.
Hurricane Milton advances towards Florida in a view from Dragon Endeavor docked with the International Space Station October 9, 2024.
Matthew Dominick | NASA | Via Reuters
NASA, in a statement to CNBC on Wednesday, did not address whether it would alter mission plans after the posts from Trump and Musk.
“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,” a NASA spokesperson said.
Expedition rotations
The Expedition 72 crew poses for a group portrait on Oct. 23, 2024.
NASA
While both Musk and Trump claimed the astronauts are “stranded” and “abandoned” on the ISS, NASA has had a spacecraft at the station since September that could return the crew at any time — a Dragon capsule operated by Musk’s SpaceX.
Additionally, allegations from Musk that “the Biden administration left them there” and Trump that the astronauts “have been waiting for many months” both misstate the situation.
To understand the circumstances onboard the ISS, it’s important to note that crews rotate onboard the orbiting research laboratory.
For 25 years, the ISS has been continuously staffed by crews called Expeditions — each typically lasting about six months, with a mix of primarily U.S. and Russian crew members. Since SpaceX began regularly flying crews for NASA in 2020, the agency has been sending up four astronauts at a time. Each group works until the next arrives at the ISS, when a ceremonial “handover” occurs before the departing crew heads back down to Earth.
NASA deemed Boeing’s Starliner too risky to return Wilmore and Williams. Starliner was initially expected to be in space for about nine days, but it spent roughly three months at the ISS while Boeing investigated an issue with the capsule’s thrusters.
Instead, it decided to remove astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson from the September launch of SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission. That meant Wilmore and Williams, who were already on the ISS, would stay on as part of Expedition 72. They would then return on SpaceX’s Dragon alongside astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Notably, NASA recently delayed the launch of SpaceX’s Crew-10 mission by a month, to “late March” from February. The agency said it and SpaceX required more time to “complete processing” of the newly built Dragon capsule.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams pose inside the hatch connecting Boeing’s Starliner to the International Space Station on
NASA
Earlier this month, NASA broadcast a discussion with the astronauts onboard the ISS, including Williams and Wilmore.
“So, what you’re telling us is you’re not channeling ‘Cast Away’ and you don’t have a volleyball with a handprint on it that you call Wilson?” then-NASA deputy chief Pam Melroy asked the crew.
“No, we’ve got a whole team up here so we’re not worried about that and there’s a lot to do as well. … We have tons of science experiments. … We’ve got space walks coming up,” Wilmore said.
“It’s just been a joy to be working up here,” Wilmore added, having just shown with her NASA counterparts how they do a synchronized flip in zero gravity.
