The founder of SpaceX said President Trump had asked his company to return two astronauts aboard the space station to Earth “as soon as possible.” NASA said it would do that “as soon as practical.”

While Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s situation is unusual, their return trip will be pretty routine, as they were already slated to fly home on a SpaceX capsule as part of a scheduled crew rotation.

A spokesperson with NASA, which oversees SpaceX’s flights to the ISS, said “NASA and SpaceX are expeditiously working to safely return the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore as soon as practical, while also preparing for the launch of Crew-10 to complete a handover between expeditions.”

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams flew to the ISS in the summer of 2024 for a routine eight-day test mission. However, due to problems with the propulsion system of Boeing’s Starliner capsule,

Elon Musk says Donald Trump has asked SpaceX to rescue two astronauts who have been in space for more than seven months — even though NASA has said there's a plan in place.

NASA's two stuck astronauts are taking their first spacewalk together, exiting the International Space Station almost eight months after moving in

President Donald Trump says he’s told Elon Musk to retrieve two astronauts stuck on the International Space Station for months longer than expected. Leroy Chiao, a former NASA astronaut and ISS commander,