‘As soon as possible’: Musk, Trump say SpaceX to ‘go get’ US astronauts from space station
However, NASA has already announced plans to bring Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore home on a SpaceX capsule around March.
US President Donald Trump and SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk issued separate statements Tuesday night in the US, claiming that SpaceX will “go get” two astronauts on the International Space Station “as soon as possible,” despite NASA’s already announced plans to bring them home on a SpaceX capsule around March.
SpaceX is already on the hook to return Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore, the two astronauts Musk and Trump are presumably referencing in their social media posts and who have received increased media attention over their extended mission in orbit.
It’s unclear exactly what Trump and Musk mean considering the capsule that NASA has tasked with returning the astronauts is already up in space. It was launched in September and is now docked to the ISS.
Williams and Wilmore have been living on the space station since early June after arriving on a Boeing Co. Starliner capsule, becoming the first crew to fly on the vehicle as part of a critical test flight that was meant to last roughly a week.
But Starliner suffered numerous technical issues with its thruster engines during its flight and so NASA decided to bring the Boeing capsule home to Earth empty, with Williams and Wilmore to return on a future SpaceX capsule instead.
The NASA decision means Williams and Wilmore are set to be on the station for around 10 months, based on the traffic schedule for vehicles heading to and from the ISS. NASA decided to fold Williams and Wilmore into an already scheduled SpaceX mission called Crew-9, which is slated to return in March.
Originally, Crew-9 was meant to launch with a four-member crew, but NASA pulled two astronauts off the mission to leave seats for Williams and Wilmore for the return to Earth. As of now, Crew-9 is slated to come home after another crewed SpaceX mission, called Crew-10, launches and arrives at the ISS, bringing another four people to the station.
Crew-9, with Williams and Wilmore on board, was supposed to leave the ISS sometime next month, but NASA recently announced the return was delayed until March. The reason was to give SpaceX more time to get the capsule for Crew-10 ready for launch.
It’s unclear if Trump and Musk’s statements mean Crew-9 will now return prior to Crew-10. NASA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
