President Donald Trump has asked SpaceX to bring back astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station (ISS), according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Wilmore and Williams were at the center of global space coverage last year when their ship presented a host of anomalies during its first crewed flight to space. The ship, Boeing's Starliner, experienced thruster misfirings that led to a months-long review by NASA and Boeing before the pair eventually decided to return Starliner to Earth without the crew.
The pair are currently scheduled to return to Earth in late March or early April, with Musk's announcement being unclear on an expedited return timeline.
Boeing's Starliner Astronauts Might Return To Earth Sooner Than Expected
Wiliams and Wilmore were initially slated to return to Earth in June, eight days after their launch. However, their return was delayed due to problems with Starliner. Boeing's crewed ship landed in New Mexico without a crew in September, two months after its planned return, as NASA was forced to decide due to a tight schedule that the agency has to follow to ensure continued supplies and crewed missions to the ISS.
To bring the two astronauts home, the space agency decided to fly its SpaceX Crew-9 mission with two crew members instead of the standard four. Crew-9 docked to the ISS in September after a delay associated with the scheduling problems associated with Starliner.
In a post on X earlier today, Musk surprisingly shared that President Trump had asked SpaceX " to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the" International Space Station as soon as possible. He added that SpaceX will follow the President's request, but refrained from commenting on the expedited return timeline.
Wilmore and Williams were initially slated to return on SpaceX's Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft that flew as part of Crew-9 and is currently docked to the ISS. However, their returned was delayed in December due to a delay on the Crew Dragon ship that will fly the next US crewed mission, Crew-10. This is a brand new spacecraft that is the final such ship in SpaceX's inventory, and its launch was delayed to March due to last minute preparations according to NASA.
Musk's statements also leave the details of any special mission that SpaceX might undertake to bring the crew home. The firm's Crew-9 spacecraft is currently docked to the ISS while its cargo Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth in December. The Crew-9 ship successfully docked with the Harmony zenith port on the ISS in November to make room for the cargo Dragon to dock to the Harmony nadir port after its launch.
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