President Donald Trump has called on SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to rescue two American NASA astronauts stranded in space and bring them home “as soon as possible.”
Musk is stepping in to rescue astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
Wilmore and Williams have been stranded in space for nearly eight months—far longer than their original mission intended.
Musk, the newly appointed head of Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” confirmed on Tuesday that Trump personally asked him to bring the astronauts home, as The New York Post reported.
The rescue mission was something former President Joe Biden’s administration seemingly failed to prioritize.
On a post on X, Musk said:
“The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @SpaceStation as soon as possible. We will do so.
“Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.”
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 28, 2025
Wilmore and Williams were initially sent to space last June aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule.
It was supposed to be a simple weeklong mission.
However, the Starliner was riddled with technical failures, including helium leaks and thruster malfunctions.
The issues forced NASA to send it back to Earth last year, without its passengers.
Despite knowing Wilmore and Williams were stranded, NASA’s solution was to have them wait for a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule to return them to Earth.
That ride was originally scheduled for February.
However, it has been delayed until March or early April.
The delay was due to NASA’s policy of ensuring an overlap between outgoing and incoming crews to maintain continuity at the International Space Station.
Musk has been unimpressed with how long the rescue operation has taken.
He is making it clear that he’s handling the situation himself.
While the Crew Dragon capsule intended to bring them home is already in space, the launch of the replacement crew was postponed due to final safety adjustments on the craft.
This entire debacle raises serious concerns about the priorities of the Biden administration.
While they’re focused on wasting billions on “climate change” initiatives, Ukraine, “woke” policies, and government bloat, they somehow left two American astronauts floating in space for months longer than necessary.
Under Trump’s leadership, space travel had a clear direction with the historic Space Force and streamlined public-private partnerships, ensuring efficiency.
Now, after four years of Biden, even something as simple as bringing home American astronauts has turned into a bureaucratic nightmare.