US President Donald Trump had promised to "rescue" NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore "stranded" in space and has kept his promise, said the White House, as the two astronauts returned to Earth early morning, at 3:27 am (IST). In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the White House shared the video of the moment SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the coast of Florida and described it as "NASA astronauts splashdown to Earth after nine months stuck in space."
In the same post, the White House boasted that President Trump has fulfilled his promise. "Promise made, promise kept: President Trump pledged to rescue the astronauts stranded in space for nine months. Today, they safely splashed down in the Gulf of America, thanks to Elon Musk, SpaceX, and NASA!"
NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore flew aboard NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test to space on June 5 last year. The two astronauts went on an eight-day mission to the ISS but, on June 6, as Starliner approached the space station, NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters. The Starliner was sent back to Earth without the crew.
Later, in August, it was decided to reassign the two astronauts to SpaceX's Crew-9 mission. They joined NASA astronaut Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Today, after over nine months, the Crew-9 team returned to earth.
How Musk And Trump Partnered For Sunita Williams' Return
Earlier this year, on January 28, President Trump said he has asked Elon Musk and SpaceX to "go get" the two brave astronauts "who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration."
Musk shared details of the talk on social media and said that President Trump has asked him to facilitate the return of the two Boeing Starliner astronauts, who have been on the space station since June 2024, as soon as possible.
The SpaceX CEO said it was "terrible" that the Biden administration "left them there so long".
In his latest interview with Fox News earlier today, Musk claimed that SpaceX offered former President Joe Biden's administration to bring back the two astronauts earlier but it was "rejected for political reasons."
"We definitely offered to return the astronauts earlier. There is no question about that. The astronauts were only supposed to be there for eight days and they have been there for almost 10 months. Obvioulsy, that doesn't make any sense. SpaceX could have brought the astronauts after a few months at most and we made that offer to Biden administration. It was rejected for political reasons and that's just a fact," he said.
In the past nine months, NASA time and again claimed that the two astronauts weren't "stranded". They were safe and healthy.