NASA has reiterated the plans to bring stranded astronauts back to Earth after US President Donald Trump explicitly asked Elon Musk and SpaceX to bring them home as soon as possible.
Sunita "Suni" Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stranded upon the International Space Station (ISS) since June 5, 2024, stretching what was supposed to be just an eight-day mission to over 239 days at the time of writing.
Many have previously expressed worries that the pair were dangerously unhealthy after pictures were released by NASA, but the space agency has thankfully quashed any fears by revealing that both are in fine health.
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That doesn't mean that the time spent on the ISS hasn't been a slog though, as they've had to miss holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, resorting to meals like soup made from their own urine.
They've been up there for so long too that Williams has revealed she'll need to learn how to walk again, as her body has got too used to the zero gravity nature of space living.
Statements from both US President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have brought some hope to their situation though, as both have expressed their willingness to bring the astronauts back to Earth as soon as possible.
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Musk declared that "we will do so," when asked to bring them back, and Trump outlined that he requested SpaceX to 'go get' the pair, wishing them a safe journey back in the process.
NASA has now added to the process with a statement of their own, outlining on X: "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."
This still doesn't give any expected timelines for their return, and predictions outline that this will be no earlier than March 2025, and likely within the timeframe between March and August this year.
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Whether Trump's focus ensures that this is on the earlier end is yet to be seen, but it's clear that this remains a top priority for both NASA and the current administration.
Both Trump and Musk have blamed the delay on the Biden administration, with the latter outlining that it's "terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long."
The president then added that the pair had "been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden administration." Plans were put in place for SpaceX to retrieve the astronauts in the second half of 2024, but it's unclear why it still has not occurred.