'Elon Musk to the rescue': NASA and SpaceX race to bring home stranded astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore

The National Aeronautics and Space Organization (NASA) on Wednesday has confirmed that it is working closely with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to ensure the safe return of stranded astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore from the International Space Station (ISS) "as soon as practical."

The announcement comes just a day after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that SpaceX would soon launch a mission to bring the two American astronauts back home.

In a post on X, NASA stated, "NASA and SpaceX are expeditiously working to safely return the agency's SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore as soon as practical, while also preparing for the launch of Crew-10 to complete a handover between expeditions."

Williams and Wilmore have been aboard the ISS since June 2024 after arriving on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Initially scheduled for an eight-day mission, their return was repeatedly delayed due to technical issues with the Starliner. By August, NASA announced that rival company SpaceX would be tasked with bringing them home in February 2025. However, that timeline was further postponed as SpaceX focused on preparing a new spacecraft for the mission.

NASA now expects Crew-10 to launch no earlier than late March 2025. Only after Crew-10 arrives at the ISS can the Crew-9 mission—comprising NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov—begin their journey back to Earth.

Elon Musk also weighed in on the situation, revealing on X that Trump had personally requested SpaceX to expedite the astronauts' return. "The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so," Musk posted. He further criticised the Biden administration, saying, "Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long."

Musk’s remarks have fueled speculation over whether political influence could alter SpaceX’s existing mission schedule. However, NASA emphasised its longstanding collaboration with Musk’s company. "NASA and SpaceX have been working together for over a decade! SpaceX has been delivering commercial resupply missions to the ISS since 2012 and has been sending the agency’s Commercial Crew missions to the station since 2020," the space agency stated.

As SpaceX prepares for Crew-10’s launch, the wait for Williams and Wilmore’s long-overdue return continues.