Elon Musk revealed on Tuesday that President Donald Trump had asked Musk’s SpaceX company to rescue the two astronauts stranded at the International Space Station. There are currently no details on when or how the retrieval will take place.
NASA describes the Boeing Starliner, the craft that took the two American astronauts into orbit, as having “multiple problems” and returning to Earth empty.
Last December, one report indicated that the two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been on the ISS since June of 2024, may not return until March 2025.
Butch Wilmore, Suni Williams, and the Starliner traveled to the station in June. The trip was originally only supposed to last eight to ten days. However, multiple problems with the Starliner led NASA to be concerned and, out of caution, to leave them behind at the space station and return the capsule to Earth empty in September.
In the same month, SpaceX launched a Crew-9 Dragon capsule to the station with a two-person crew and two seats empty. The intention was to return Wilmore and Williams on board in February 2025.
NASA, however, said in a press release on Tuesday that Wilmore’s and Williams’ replacements would launch to the station aboard the SpaceX Crew-10 “no sooner than late March 2025.” This would mean that Wilmore will be returning to Earth at the latest by that date.
The latest delay to the Crew-10 launch was to allow “NASA and SpaceX to finish processing a new Dragon spacecraft to be used for the mission.”
Wilmore and Williams would have been on the ISS for more than nine months if they returned in March. Originally, they were only supposed to stay on the ISS for a few short days.
Musk’s SpaceX is involved in numerous launches of SpaceX Starship boosters. This includes not only the launch but also the recovery back onto the gantry where it was launched. This technology is truly remarkable, especially considering that it is the product of a skunkworks.
