Promise made, promise kept: White House credits Trump for safe return of astronauts

Williams and Wilmore had originally launched aboard NASA's Boeing Crew Flight Test on June 5 last year for what was supposed to be an eight-day mission to the International Space Station

Washington: The White House has said that US President Donald Trump has fulfilled his promise to “rescue” NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who had been stuck in space for months.

The two astronauts returned to Earth early Wednesday morning, with their spacecraft splashing down off the coast of Florida at 3:27 a.m. (Indian time). Sharing a video of the dramatic moment on social media platform X, the White House called it: ‘NASA astronauts splashdown to Earth after nine months stuck in space.’ “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!” the post read.

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Williams and Wilmore had originally launched aboard NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test on June 5 last year for what was supposed to be an eight-day mission to the International Space Station.

However, on June 6, as their Starliner spacecraft approached the ISS, NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and issues with the spacecraft’s reaction control thrusters. This forced the Starliner to return to Earth without its crew, leaving the astronauts on the ISS far longer than intended.

By August, NASA decided to reassign the two astronauts to SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, where they joined NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

After spending more than nine months in space, the Crew-9 team finally returned to Earth on Wednesday. The situation had taken a political turn earlier this year when, on January 28, President Trump announced that he had personally requested SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to “go get” the two astronauts, accusing the Biden administration of virtually abandoning them in space.

Musk later shared details of the discussion on social media, stating that Trump had asked him to ensure the safe return of Williams and Wilmore, who had been aboard the ISS since June 2024.

Musk was vocal about his concerns, calling the astronauts’ prolonged stay in space “terrible” and blaming the Biden administration for not acting sooner.

Despite the growing controversy, NASA had consistently maintained over the past nine months that the astronauts were never “stranded.” The agency repeatedly assured the public that Williams and Wilmore were safe and healthy throughout their extended stay aboard the ISS.