President Donald Trump again vowed to rescue two stranded American astronauts, sending them a message of encouragement from the Oval Office on Thursday.
‘We’re coming up to get you,’ Trump said, when asked if he had a message for the astronauts.
The two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, were only expected to spend eight days aboard the International Space Station after their Boeing Starliner docked in June 2024.
Technical problems and safety concerns over the vehicle made it unsafe for them to return home, according to NASA, leaving them stranded in space for over eight months.
Trump accused former President Joe Biden of leaving the astronauts stranded on the space station.
‘Biden was embarrassed by what happened and he said, “Leave them up there,”‘ Trump said and added, ‘the most incompetent president in our history has allowed that to happen to you, and this president won’t let it happen.’
‘We love you and we’re coming up to get you and you shouldn’t have been up there so long,’ he added.
The astronauts are expected to return to Earth on March 19 or 20, aboard a Space-X vehicle, the space company owned by Elon Musk.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office about the stranded astronauts
This image taken from video posted by NASA shows, from left, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams speaking during a news conference
Astronaut Suni Williams supports the ground team as Astrobee’s gecko-inspired grip snags a cube in space!
Trump described Williams as the ‘woman with the wild hair’ after she appeared on camera with her hair floating above her head in space’s zero gravity.
‘Good solid head of hair she’s got … there’s no games with her hair,’ he added.
The president said that eight months was an awful long time to be stranded in space.
‘I hope they like each other, maybe they’ll love each other, I don’t know. But they’ve been left up there. Think of it,’ he said.
Wilmore has a wife and two daughters who are now speaking out about his situation.
In a heartbreaking video quietly uploaded to social media last month, Daryn, 19, said that her father had ‘missed out on a lot’ during his uncertain nine-month stay in space — including Christmas and her parents’ 30-year wedding anniversary.
Wilmore’s wife and his two daughters live in Houston, Texas, where they have been patiently awaiting his return since June of last year.
Meanwhile, Sunita Williams has been married to her husband for 20 years.
When the president jokingly asked Fox News reporter Peter Doocy if he should personally join the crew aboard Musk’s rocket, Doocy replied, ‘If that’s an option, yes.’
‘That’s terrible, I thought he liked me,’ he replied to Doocy.
Trump said he would rather appear to greet the astronauts when they returned to Earth.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Commander Suni Williams (center) is dwarfed near the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft
Elon Musk talked about the rescue of the astronauts last week with podcaster Joe Rogan
Musk said that his company Space-X offered to fly up and rescue the stranded crew, but that the Biden administration turned them down because of politics.
‘It ended up being like this political football and sort of, sort of hotly contested topic,’ Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan in an interview last week. ‘We offered to bring them back early. This offer was rejected by the Biden administration.’
Musk insisted the decision to delay the astronauts return was due to ‘political reasons.’
‘There’s no way that they’re gonna make anyone who’s supporting Trump look, look good,’ he said.
The astronauts were asked to weigh in on the controversy on Tuesday, during a press conference from space.
Wilmore claimed ignorance of the politics of their return but endorsed Musk’s statements.
‘I can only say that Mr. Musk, what he says, is absolutely factual,’ he said. ‘We have no information on that, though, whatsoever.’
‘I can tell you at the outset, all of us have the utmost respect for Mr. Musk and obviously, respect and admiration for our president of the United States, Donald Trump,’ Wilmore added. ‘The words they’ve said, politics, I mean, that’s part of life. We understand that.’