Elon Musk praised SpaceX, Nasa, and US President Donald Trump for the safe return of two astronauts who were stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for nearly nine months—while accusing the Biden administration of rejecting earlier rescue efforts for “political reasons.”
“Thanks to the excellent work of the SpaceX team working with Nasa, the astronauts are now safely home. And so congratulations to the SpaceX NASA teams on excellent work,” Musk said during an exclusive interview on Hannity, a talk show hosted by Fox News.
The SpaceX CEO also expressed gratitude to Trump for making the astronauts’ return a priority after taking office in January. “A huge note of appreciation to President Trump for prioritizing and expediting the return,” Musk said.
Then accusing Biden administration of delaying the return, Musk claimed that SpaceX had offered to bring the astronauts home much earlier, but the Biden administration refused. “We definitely offered to return the astronauts earlier. There’s no question about that,” Musk told Hannity. “SpaceX could have brought the astronauts back after a few months at most, and we made that offer to the Biden administration. It was rejected for political reasons, and that’s just a fact.”
The two astronauts—Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams—launched aboard Boeing’s first astronaut flight in June 2024. Their mission was meant to last just one week, but technical failures with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft made it unsafe for them to return. As a result, Wilmore and Williams were left stranded on the ISS for nearly ten months.
Their prolonged stay became a political issue during Trump’s first months back in office. Shortly after his inauguration, Trump directed Musk to bring the astronauts home, accusing Biden of leaving them in space. “I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to ‘go get’ the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration,” Trump posted at the time. “They have been waiting for many months on @Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon!!!”
On Tuesday, Wilmore and Williams finally returned to Earth alongside Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Their SpaceX capsule splashed down off the coast of Florida just before 6 pm ET.
At a post-landing news conference, Nasa Deputy Associate Administrator Joel Montalbano declined to comment on the Biden administration’s handling of the situation. “Yeah, so I wasn’t involved in any conversations with the previous administration,” Montalbano said. “It was clear we had a request from the current administration, and the results you saw are what we saw today with the landing of Crew-9.”
Musk, however, remained firm in his criticism. “The astronauts were only supposed to be there for eight days, and they’ve been there for almost ten months. So, obviously, that doesn’t make any sense,” he said.