US President Donald Trump has criticized the Biden administration, accusing it of “abandoning” two NASA astronauts currently stranded on the International Space Station (ISS).
In a post on Truth Social on January 29, 2025, Trump asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to “go get” the two “brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space.”
The astronauts, Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore, have been on the ISS since June 2024. They were meant to return to Earth after a short mission, but technical problems with their Boeing Starliner capsule prolonged their stay for seven months.
“Elon will soon be on his way,” Trump wrote. “Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon!!!”
In response, Musk said on X that SpaceX “will do so”, adding that it is “terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.”
Though it is unclear what the new timeline may be, the original plan was for the two astronauts to return in late March 2025 after the arrival of the SpaceX Crew-10 mission.
By then, the two astronauts who were stranded will have spent about 10 months in space. CBS News reported that both astronauts have said that they understood NASA’s choice to extend their mission.
In September 2024, astronauts Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov, arrived at the ISS as part of the Crew-9 mission. They set aside two empty seats for the stranded astronauts. NASA planned for Hague and Gorbunov to have a regular long stay, expecting them to return to Earth alongside Wilmore and Williams in January 2025.
However, in December 2024, NASA said that the Crew-9 return mission had been delayed after SpaceX informed the agency that more time was needed to prepare the capsule for the Crew-10 mission.
