After 9 Months Stranded In Space, NASA Astronaut Fires Back At Elon Musk’s Space Station Plans
NASA’s “stranded astronauts” are finally getting their ticket home, but not without some cosmic drama.
When Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams blasted off last June, they expected a quick week-long mission. Nine months later, they’re still orbiting Earth after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft was deemed too dangerous to bring them home.
The astronauts revealed during Tuesday’s press conference that they’re just weeks away from finally returning to Earth, with a SpaceX rescue mission set to bring them home in late March.
But what has the internet buzzing isn’t just their extended stay—it’s Williams’ pointed response to Elon Musk’s recent suggestion that the International Space Station should be decommissioned in just two years.
“This place is ticking. It’s just really amazing, so I would say we’re actually in our prime right now,” Williams fired back when asked about Musk’s comments. “I would think that right now is probably not the right time to say quit, call it quits.”
The drama intensified when it was revealed that Trump and Musk had jointly called for accelerating the astronauts’ return in January, publicly blaming the previous administration for the delay. However, Wilmore diplomatically stated that politics didn’t factor into their return timeline.
The pair have maintained remarkably positive attitudes despite the unexpected extension of their mission. Williams said the hardest part wasn’t being stuck in space—it was the emotional “roller coaster” their families endured back on Earth.
“We’re here. We have a mission. We’re just doing what we do every day, and every day is interesting because we’re up in space and it’s a lot of fun,” she explained.
The return journey will be anything but ordinary. Since their trip home in a SpaceX Dragon capsule wasn’t planned, they won’t have custom-made flight suits with their names. Instead, they’ll wear generic SpaceX outfits—though Wilmore hinted he might take a pen to write his name on his.
“We’re just Butch and Suni,” Williams shrugged. “Everybody knows who we are by now.”
Their journey home will involve a unique spacecraft swap. The astronauts who launch on March 12 will arrive at the station with two empty seats—spots that Wilmore and Williams will fill for the return trip alongside NASA’s Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov.
For Williams, reuniting with her Labrador retrievers tops her Earth bucket list after nearly a year in space.
The unexpected extended mission came after Boeing’s troubled Starliner capsule experienced so many problems during its journey to the space station that NASA determined it couldn’t safely carry the astronauts back to Earth. Further delays mounted when the brand-new SpaceX capsule meant to deliver their replacements needed additional completion time.
Despite the challenges, both astronauts—retired Navy captains and experienced space fliers—have remained committed to their mission, even conducting a spacewalk together in January while waiting for their ride home.
The duo’s resilience and good humor throughout their unplanned extended stay has earned them admiration from space enthusiasts worldwide, with #SpaceStranded trending across social media platforms as their return date approaches.
