President Trump reassured astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been stranded aboard the International Space Station for nearly a year, saying, “We’re coming up to get you,” as Elon Musk reportedly prepares to launch a SpaceX capsule in about two weeks.
On Thursday, Trump, 78, joked about the possibility of personally launching a rescue mission to help bring the astronauts back to Earth, and he criticized former President Joe Biden for the mission, which started as an eight-day trip but has now stretched to nine months and counting, the New York Post reported.
“Biden left them up there,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We have two astronauts that are stuck in space. I have asked Elon, I said, ‘Do me a favor. Can you get them out?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ He is preparing to go up, I think in two weeks.”
The president said that “Biden was embarrassed by what happened, and he said, ‘leave them up there.’ I would have said, ‘If you’re embarrassed, you got to get them out.’ Elon is right now preparing a ship to go up and get them.”
In an exchange with Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy, Trump noted that his message to the stranded U.S. astronauts was: “We love you, and we’re coming up to get you, and you shouldn’t have been up there so long.”
He added: “The most incompetent president in our history has allowed that to happen to you, but this president won’t let it happen.”
They’ve been left up there — I hope they like each other, maybe they love each other, I don’t know,” he mused. “But they’ve been left up there. Think of it. And I see the woman with the wild hair, good, solid hair she’s got. There’s no kidding, there’s no games with her hair.”
The two astronauts became stranded in June when an issue was discovered with Boeing’s Starliner capsule, which returned without them, The Post noted.
In September, Musk’s SpaceX launched a Crew Dragon capsule to rescue the pair, and it successfully docked at the space station. However, NASA chose to delay their return.
In December, NASA announced that the astronauts would have to wait for another SpaceX rescue vehicle to arrive with replacement scientists, which would not occur before late March. Afterward, they would need to go through an unspecified handover period before finally returning to Earth.
The two astronauts became stranded in June when an issue was discovered with Boeing’s Starliner capsule, which returned without them.
In September, Musk’s SpaceX launched a Crew Dragon capsule to rescue the pair, and it successfully docked at the space station. However, NASA chose to delay their return.
In December, NASA announced that the astronauts would have to wait for another SpaceX rescue vehicle to arrive with replacement scientists, which would not occur before late March. Afterward, they would need to go through an unspecified handover period before finally returning to Earth, the outlet added.
At one point, Trump then asked attending officials and journalists jokingly: “Should I go on that journey just to be on the ship when we stop?”
“If that’s an option, yes,” Doocy responded, noting he would be the “first president in space.”
But, The Post said, Trump didn’t seem completely sold on the idea.
“When they come back, I’ll greet them, how about that?” he asked.
On Thursday, Musk’s SpaceX program suffered another setback, however, when a Starship rocket exploded after lift-off in Texas, which caused multiple flights in Florida to be temporarily grounded.
A live stream showed the engines cutting off from the rocket about eight minutes into the launch, shortly after the booster was successfully caught back at the tower.
“We just saw some engines go out. It looks like we are losing altitude control of the ship,” explained SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot during the webcast.
Before flight controllers lost communication, the spacecraft appeared to spin.