KEY POINTS
- Trump joked that he hopes Wilmore and Williams ‘like each other’ as they have been in the space station for nine months
- The NASA astronauts were expecting to stay in space for only over a week, but their ride home faced technical issues
- Trump said he expects Elon Musk’s team to be up in space within two weeks to ‘rescue’ Wilmore and Williams
U.S. President Donald Trump had a chit-chat with reporters Thursday as he signed executive orders and proclamations, and through the end of the discussions, he was asked about whether he knew that there were two astronauts in space, still waiting to get back to Earth after a very much prolonged stay at the space station.
Trump first blamed the previous administration for the mission’s extension, saying ex-President Joe Biden “left them up there,” before promising to rescue the stranded astronauts with the help of his close advisor, Elon Musk.
Trump Sends Message to Stranded Astronauts, Makes Special Mention of Williams
The president said he has spoken to the SpaceX founder about “rescuing” NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, who have been stuck in space over the last eight months.
Trump revealed that Musk is “preparing to go up” in two weeks or so to get Wilmore and Williams back home.
He went on to say the Biden administration was “embarrassed” about the mission’s turning into a debacle and decided to “leave them up there.”
Another day, another 45-minute back-and-forth with the press by President Donald J. Trump.
It will never get old having a president again who has the cognitive ability to do this. pic.twitter.com/b6VW3DYWSh
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 7, 2025
“We love you and we’re coming up to get you, and you shouldn’t have been up there so long,” Trump said in a direct message for the astronauts. “I hope they like each other,” he joked further.
Trump also seemed to pick on Williams’s hair, which isn’t usually wild when she’s down on Earth. “I see the woman with the wild hair – a good, solid head of hair she’s got,” he said, before getting serious and pointing out that there are “real” dangers up in space.
What Happened to the Stranded Astronauts?
Wilmore and Williams were expecting to get back home within eight days or so after they launched in June 2024 aboard a Boeing Starliner capsule, which finally made its space debut after years of getting delayed.
The Starliner suffered many issues on its way to the space station. NASA later ruled that it was too dangerous to carry people onboard. It returned to Earth empty in September, while Wilmore and Williams had to stay at the space station and wait.
They conducted a spacewalk last month as they continued to wait for an opportunity to return home. The NASA’s Johnson Space Center published a “Space to Ground” special featuring Williams earlier in December, thanking her for her service and highlighting her tenure in the space industry.
