Trump Asks Elon Musk to Retrieve NASA Astronauts from International Space Station

Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been on the International Space Station (ISS) since June last year.

FILE PHOTO: NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams pose for a picture at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, ahead of Boeing's Starliner-1 Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., June 5, 2024. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo

President Donald Trump said on Jan. 28 that he has asked billionaire businessman and SpaceX founder Elon Musk to help return two NASA astronauts who have been on board the International Space Station (ISS) for months.

NASA tapped Musk’s SpaceX in August 2024, to return the pair on a Crew Dragon spacecraft. That craft is already docked with the space station, having flown there for NASA’s Crew-9 astronaut rotation mission in September 2024 with empty seats for the two astronauts. After delays, the mission to return them had been slated for late March.