Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since June 5, 2024.
Wilmore, 61, and his fellow astronaut Williams, 58, set out on what was intended to be an eight-day mission to the ISS on June 5. However, thruster and leak issues with Boeing’s Starliner capsule after liftoff disrupted their planned return.
On August 8, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, Steve Stich, suggested that the astronauts might return on SpaceX Crew-9’s flight in February. “We have been working with SpaceX to ensure they are ready to respond with Crew-9 as a contingency. We have not formally committed to this path, but we wanted to ensure we had all that flexibility in place,” Stich explained.
“Our prime option is to return Butch and Suni on Starliner. However, we have done the requisite planning to make sure we have other options open.”
While in a press conference on March 5, the president was asked about the astronauts and their plan to return to earth.
However, his response was odd: “They’ve been left up there,” said Trump. “I hope they like each other… maybe they’ll love each other. I don’t know.”
“But they’ve been left up there. Think of it. And I see the woman with the wild hair. Good solid head of hair she’s got.
“There’s no kidding. There’s no games with her hair.”
It should be noted that both astronauts are happily married to other people that are waiting for their return on earth.
People took to X to shared their thoughts on the POTUS’s response: “How incredibly inappropriate.”
Someone else asked: “Does anyone think this is normal?”
“Trump’s reckless comments about the astronauts stranded at the ISS are not just irresponsible—they undermine the gravity of the situation,” said another. “These brave individuals are facing real challenges, and they deserve support, not distractions. Leadership requires stability and focus. It’s time to seriously consider invoking the 25th Amendment,”
While others quipped that they may be better off staying up there: “At this point they may be better off in space.”
“I bet they’re saying to each other, you know what, maybe we should just stay up here for a bit longer,” said another.
As per the Washingtonian magazine, the astronauts are paid the same way any employee is paid on a business trip, so essentially their normal annual salary. The company supplies food, drink transport and lodging. Of course there is nowhere for them to really spend money up there.
Former NASA employee Cady Coleman has revealed: “There is some small amount of money per day for incidentals that they end up being legally obligated to pay you.”
She added that being in space is like “…you’re a fish in an aquarium, where it’s sort of dark and you’re gliding through this wonderful place,”
During a previous interview with Trump, Elon Musk said “They were left up there for political reasons, which is not good,”
“Well, we don’t want to be complacent, but we have brought astronauts back from the space station many times before, and always with success.”
To which Trump chimed in that Biden was ‘going to leave them in space’.
Wilmore has spoken out about Trump and Musk’s comments.
“Obviously we’ve heard some of these different things that have been said, I can tell you at the outset we have all of us have the utmost respect for Mr Musk and obviously respect and admiration for our President of the United States Donald Trump,”
He continued: “The words they’ve said ‘politics’, I mean that’s part of life, we understand that.
“We know what we’ve lived up here, we know the the ins and outs and the specifics that they may not be privy to – and I’m sure that they have some issues that they are dealing with, information that they have that we are not privy to.”
“I can only say that Mr Musk, what he says is absolutely factual – I have no, we have no, information on that though whatsoever, what was offered, what was, what was not offered, who it was offered to, how that process went.
“That’s information that we simply don’t have so, I believe him. I don’t know all those details and I don’t think any of us really can give you the answer that maybe that you would be hoping for.”
