Bring back Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, Trump tells Musk
The prolonged stay in space has sparked concerns about Sunita Williams' health, with the latest images indicating that she may have lost weight
US President Donald Trump has told tech titan Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring back stranded NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore from the International Space Station (ISS).
The new president accused the Biden administration of abandoning them.
“We will do so,” Musk tweeted after confirming that Trump had indeed asked him to get back the astronauts as soon as possible. “Terrible that the Biden administration left them there for so long."
System failure
Williams, 59, and Wilmore, 62, blasted off aboard Boeing's Starliner on June 5 last year for what was to be an eight to 10-day mission.
But thruster malfunctions and helium leaks forced NASA to bring back the Starliner capsule on September 7,leaving the two aboard the station.
The two astronauts have remained stranded on the space station for seven long months.
Also read: Sunita Williams' rescue mission Space X capsule docks at space station
Return delayed
In September, a SpaceX four-seat Crew Dragon spacecraft was launched with just two astronauts, leaving two seats vacant for the return of Williams and Wilmore.
The astronauts were supposed to return at the end of February.
However, the return has been delayed to late March to give SpaceX more time to ready a new spacecraft, SpaceX Crew-10, to ferry a replacement crew to the space station.
Also read: Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore could be stuck in space till February 2025
Health issues
The prolonged stay in space has sparked concerns about Williams' health, with the latest images indicating that she might have lost weight.
If Williams and Wilmore are indeed brought back in late March, they would have logged around 300 days in space.