NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stranded in space for seven months now, way more extra time on the International Space Station than they would have anticipated.
Wilmore was physically absent for most of his daughter’s final year of high school. The two said they were missing their families, but Williams said they were confident about a ride home. A new spacecraft, the SpaceX Dragon should bring them back sometime between February and March.
The astronauts will have spent about 300 days in space if they return in late March.
However, US President Donald Trump has asked tech titan Elon Musk to “go get” the two “brave astronauts”. He also blamed the Joe Biden administration for “abandoning” them.
Musk said on social media that the President had asked SpaceX to get the astronauts home as soon as possible. “We will do so. Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long,” the SpaceX CEO said.
To provide SpaceX extra time to prepare a new spacecraft, SpaceX Crew-10, to transport a replacement crew to the space station, the return has been postponed until late March.
Williams and Wilmore launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner on June 5, 2024, expecting a mission lasting eight to 10 days. Unfortunately, issues with thrusters and helium leaks forced NASA to return the Starliner capsule on September 7, leaving the two astronauts on the station.
Williams’s extended stay in space has raised questions about her health because the most recent photos suggest that she may have lost weight. But in an interview in November last year, she brushed the worries aside, saying her body weighed the same but had changed a bit.