Williams, Wilmore thank Musk & Trump for their support as they head back to Earth

After being stranded for over nine months on the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are finally headed home. Their homecoming was postponed after a malfunction with their spacecraft. They have thanked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump for facilitating this.

Williams and Wilmore were initially on a 10-day mission on the ISS. However, their return was postponed when their Boeing Starliner spacecraft experienced some technical problems with its propulsion system. Consequently, they stayed longer in space than anticipated.

Now, NASA has announced that their return to Earth will happen in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The astronauts will come home on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which docked safely at the ISS on Sunday. Williams and Wilmore will be joined on the return trip by NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

NASA representatives have asserted that the Crew Dragon capsule will land in the ocean just off the Florida coast on March 18. Despite the originally intended return Wednesday, it has been moved up so they will avoid poor weather to follow later this week.

Thanks to Musk and Trump

Before leaving, both Wilmore and Williams paused to give thanks to the people who made it all possible. In a video posted on social media by Elon Musk, they thanked him and President Trump for their help.

Williams stated in the video, “We are coming back before long, so don’t make those plans without me. We’ll be back before too long.”

Wilmore continued, “All of us have the utmost respect for Mr. Musk and obviously respect and admiration for the President of the United States, Donald Trump. We appreciate them, we appreciate all what they do for us, human spaceflight for our nation, and we’re thankful for the positions they are in.”

President Trump had earlier responded to the long stay of the astronauts, denouncing the Biden administration for not bringing them early. From the Oval Office, Trump said, “We love you, and we’re coming up to get you. You shouldn’t have been up there for so long. The most incompetent president in our history allowed this to happen to you, but this president won’t let that happen. We’re going to get you out.”

As the astronauts’ return draws near, President Trump has pledged to personally greet them when they return to Earth.