NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been on the International Space Station (ISS) for over eight months, have countered allegations made by Elon Musk and President Donald Trump that their prolonged stay in space was politically motivated. Their return is scheduled for March 2025.
The astronauts began their mission in June 2024, originally meant to last eight days, aboard the Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. However, problems with the spacecraft’s thrusters, valve systems, and helium leaks led NASA to bring the capsule back to Earth without the astronauts in September 2024. As of February 2025, their stay had reached 258 days – a duration over 30 times longer than initially planned.
“We don’t feel abandoned, we don’t feel stuck, we don’t feel stranded,” Wilmore said in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper from the ISS. Williams agreed, stating, “It was a little bit longer stay than we had expected, but we’ve made the most of it.” The astronauts have been occupied with research and maintenance duties during their extended stay.
The issue gained attention when SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News alongside Trump, asserted that the astronauts were left in space due to political motivations. Musk suggested the delay was unnecessary and excessive. Trump furthered this notion, implying an intentional effort to keep the astronauts in space to avoid negative publicity. The interview predominantly revolved around Musk’s attempts to reduce government spending through his Department of Government Efficiency initiative.
In response, NASA unveiled a thorough rescue plan. This involved SpaceX launching a Crew-9 Dragon capsule in September with fewer crew members to allow space for the eventual return of Wilmore and Williams. In December, the space agency announced that the astronauts would return to Earth in mid-March 2025, after the arrival of their replacements on the Crew-10 mission.
Throughout their extended mission, both astronauts adhered to a rigorous work schedule. Williams set a new record for the longest spacewalk time by a woman astronaut, and both crew members carried out critical maintenance operations. On January 30, they conducted their first joint spacewalk 260 miles above Spain, removing a broken antenna and cleaning the station’s exterior surface for signs of microbial growth that might have leaked from station vents. “Here we go,” Wilmore said, emerging 260 miles above Spain.
NASA engineers decided it was necessary to bring the capsule back without a crew for safety reasons. This allowed NASA and Boeing to continue testing the Starliner during its journey back to Earth. Throughout the prolonged mission, the ISS continued normal operations, with regular resupply missions ensuring the crew had sufficient provisions.
In December 2024, NASA outlined a detailed schedule for the crew’s return, indicating that the Crew-10 mission wouldn’t launch until at least mid-March 2025. This meant that Wilmore and Williams would have been in orbit for at least nine months. Both astronauts, retired Navy captains, had prior experience with spacewalks during earlier ISS missions. NASA stressed that although the mission extension was unplanned, it did not pose a risk to the astronauts.
The controversy deepened when Musk told Hannity that the astronauts were being returned earlier due to the president’s request. However, the timeline he provided—about four weeks—matched the one NASA had already announced months earlier, indicating that nothing had been accelerated. Musk assured viewers that SpaceX had safely returned astronauts from the ISS multiple times before and would take every precaution for a smooth trip home. NASA officials later confirmed there had been no changes to the schedule, emphasizing that the timeline was based purely on technical and safety factors, not politics.
Despite their prolonged stay, the astronauts maintained an upbeat attitude, with Williams expressing that they were “having a great time” and that “living in space is super fun.”