Astronauts in Space for 8 Months Push Back on Trump’s ‘Abandoned’ Claim

• NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have been in space since June 2024, following what was supposed to be a weeklong test flight of a Boeing Starliner
• Shortly after taking office, President Trump claimed in a social media post that they had been “abandoned in space by the Biden Administration”
• However, speaking with CNN, Wilmore pushed back on that “rhetoric,” insisting they “don’t feel stuck” at all

The two NASA astronauts who have been in space since June of last year — after embarking on what was supposed to be a weeklong test flight of a Boeing Starliner capsule — responded to President Donald Trump’s claim that they were “abandoned” by the Biden administration.

“That’s been the rhetoric. That’s been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck,” Butch Wilmore said while speaking with CNN‘s Anderson Cooper from the International Space Station on Thursday, Feb. 13.

“But that is, again, not what our human spaceflight program is about,” he continued. “We don’t feel abandoned, we don’t feel stuck, we don’t feel stranded.”

Although Wimore admitted that he understood “why others may think that,” he said that they came to space prepared “for any and all contingencies that we can conceive of.”

“We don’t feel abandoned, we don’t feel stuck, we don’t feel stranded,” the astronaut continued. “If you’ll help us change the rhetoric, help us change the narrative, let’s change it to ‘prepared and committed.’ That’s what we prefer.”

Wilmore and Williams’ expected return following their June 2024 test flight of the Starliner was delayed after their spacecraft encountered mechanical issues. After weeks of troubleshooting, the spacecraft was sent back to Earth without them — and since then, their return home has continually been pushed back.

In a Jan. 28 Truth Social post, Trump wrote that he had asked Elon Musk and SpaceX to “‘go get’ the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration.”

“Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long,” Musk wrote in a social media response posted on X, the social media platform he owns, going on to note that SpaceX would be bringing them home “as soon as possible.”

However, despite their remarks, NASA had already been collaborating with SpaceX for months on a plan to bring the astronauts home — and in December, NASA said they planned to bring the astronauts home “no earlier than late March,” which would allow them time to prepare a new SpaceX capsule.

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Earlier this month NASA announced that the space agency and SpaceX have sped up the planned launch and return dates for the upcoming crew rotation missions.

“The earlier launch opportunity is available following a decision by mission management to adjust the agency’s original plan to fly a new Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-10 mission that requires additional processing time,” NASA explained.

“The flight now will use a previously flown Dragon, called Endurance, and joint teams are working to complete assessments of the spacecraft’s previously flown hardware to ensure it meets the agency’s Commercial Crew Program safety and certification requirements,” the agency added. 

PEOPLE contacted the White House for comment on Wednesday, Feb. 19.

During the astronauts’ recent CNN interview from space, Williams said that both she and Wilmore were doing “pretty darn good.” 

“We got food, we got clothes,” she told Cooper. “We got great crew members up here. Of course, it’s been a longer stay than we expected, but both of us have trained to live and work on the International Space Station and I think we made the most of it.”