US President Donald Trump says NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore only returned to Earth on March 19 because he instructed advisor and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to go and fetch them.
On Truth Social, he accused the previous Biden administration of “shamefully” forgetting about the two astronauts who spent nine months at the International Space Station when NASA assessed Boeing’s Starliner capsule as too risky to travel home in after its first trouble-plagued trip to the ISS in June 2024.
“I just spoke with the Acting Administrator of NASA, Janet Petro. She is coordinating our team of highly respected scientists, space engineers, and various other geniuses, who has agreed to let our astronauts come home long prior to the two-week period originally approved by NASA. Janet was great. She said, ‘let’s bring them home now, sir!,’ Trump posted shortly before a SpaceX capsule detached from the ISS on March 18 with four returning astronauts onboard, including Wilmore, Williams, Nick Hague, and Aleksandr Gorbunov.
All four safely splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday and were picked up by a SpaceX retrieval vessel stationed nearby.
Petro called hastened mission “unique”
“Our teams on the ground embraced the Trump Administration’s challenge of an updated, and somewhat unique, mission plan to bring our crew home,” Petro said in a separate NASA media statement. She added that NASA and SpaceX had worked diligently to hasten the astronaut’s return “per President Trump’s direction.”
“This began when I asked Elon Musk to go up and get the abandoned astronauts because the Biden Administration was incapable of doing so,” said Trump. “They shamefully forgot about the astronauts because they considered it to be a very embarrassing event for them.”
On X, his preferred social media platform, Musk congratulated the NASA and SpaceX teams. “Thank you to @POTUS for prioritising this mission,” he added.
“Safety always comes first, and maximum standards are being adhered to,” added Trump. “But after eight long months for a mission that was supposed to be eight days, it is time. I look forward to seeing Butch and Suni, and thank you again to NASA and Janet Petro.”
After the retrieval, NASA whisked the four astronauts to Houston for medical checkups and re-acclimatisation. They will remain under observation for 45 days, albeit primarily at their homes rather than a NASA facility.
Williams and Wilmore spent 286 days in space. Additionally, the return of Hague and Gorbunov marks the end of the SpaceX Crew 9 Mission to the ISS. The Crew 10 astronauts at the ISS form part of the ongoing 72nd expedition to the space station.
