NASA has confirmed a plan collaborating with Elon Musk's SpaceX to return two astronauts from the International Space Station.
While the plan was already set last year both Musk and United States President Donald Trump have brought it up again this week on social media, with Trump suggesting he wants a faster turnaround on the return.
In a post on X, Musk said that the Joe Biden’s administration had left the two astronauts “stranded” and said it was Trump who had asked SpaceX to step in to rescue them, despite this plan already being agreed upon in August of last year while Joe Biden was still in office.
A delay in that plan was announced in December when mission teams said they needed more time to prepare a new SpaceX vehicle.
In response to any suggestion for a faster return, NASA said that Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, part of the ISS’s Crew-9 mission, would be brought back "as soon as practical".
Williams and Wilmore piloted the first crewed mission of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which launched it's journey to the ISS in June 2024.
They have since been unable to return due to mechanical and technical issues, having been officially inducted as crew for the ISS in the meantime.
The flight back to Earth is expected to be relatively routine, “while also preparing for the launch of Crew-10 to complete a handover between expeditions”.
