The return of the two American astronauts is conditional on the Crew-10 mission, a routine operation conducted by NASA and SpaceX. It was scheduled to take off last Wednesday but was postponed due to a hydraulic problem on the launch platform. Aboard SpaceX's Dragon capsule, the Crew-10 crew, composed of Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain (NASA), Takuya Onishi (JAXA) and Kirill Peskov (Roscosmos), will join the ISS to ensure the transition with Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will then be able to return to Earth.
An extended stay at aboard the ISS
Despite questions about their extended stay, the two astronauts say they did not feel "abandoned." "That's what we've been hearing all along: stranded, stuck, left behind, and we understand why. But that's not what our human spaceflight program is about," explained Butch Wilmore. Suni Williams, who became ISS commander last September, took a similar approach: "I love being here. Every day, even routine tasks become fun."
This discrepancy, however, has taken a political turn. Donald Trump declared that the two astronauts had been "abandoned in space," a claim widely denied by NASA and key stakeholders. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and the US president's closest advisor, even claimed that his company had proposed a repatriation mission earlier, a suggestion that the US space agency reportedly refused. However, according to Lori Garver, former NASA deputy administrator, such an initiative would not have made financial and logistical sense: "Accelerating a mission to repatriate Wilmore and Williams would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars."
Beyond the controversies, this episode highlights the difficulty Boeing is having in catching up in the commercial spaceflight sector. The Starliner, which was originally supposed to bring astronauts back to Earth, experienced several failures, including helium leaks and propulsion problems. These incidents led NASA to decide to return it to empty, while Wilmore and Williams were reassigned to a SpaceX flight.
This hitch reinforces the dominance of SpaceX, which remains NASA's primary supplier for human spaceflights to the ISS. "It's disappointing not to have a reliable second supplier," said Lori Garver, noting that competition is essential for the development of commercial space stations and reducing costs.
For now, Wilmore and Williams are awaiting their return. Once Crew-10 is in place, they will board a Dragon capsule already present on the ISS since September. Their landing on Earth will mark the end of an extended mission that, while defying expectations, does not appear to have dampened their enthusiasm for space exploration.
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