A spokesperson with NASA, which oversees SpaceX’s flights to the ISS, said “NASA and SpaceX are expeditiously working to safely return the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore as soon as practical, while also preparing for the launch of Crew-10 to complete a handover between expeditions.”

While Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s situation is unusual, their return trip will be pretty routine, as they were already slated to fly home on a SpaceX capsule as part of a scheduled crew rotation.

Several other space companies have plans to construct their own space stations as well, including Northrop Grumman, Axiom Space, Nanoracks and Sierra Space. NASA needs at least one of them on orbit before the ISS is decommissioned, and all of them are counting on market demand to make it there.

Starliner co-pilot Sunita Williams is now the world's most experienced female spacewalker, moving up to No. 4 overall.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Elon Musk put out a message on X saying that President Donald Trump had asked him to return the two Boeing Starliner astronauts who have been on the space station since June as soon as possible.

Elon Musk says Donald Trump has asked SpaceX to rescue two astronauts who have been in space for more than seven months — even though NASA has said there's a plan in place.

Donald Trump asks Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring back stranded Nasa astronauts from International Space Station - US president says he has asked Elon Musk for help to return stranded astronauts ‘as soon

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore completed a spacewalk Thursday while awaiting their delayed return to Earth. Williams set a new spacewalking record for female astronauts during the mission.

So the return of Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore has never been a political story—until this week. And it's a good thing that the two will be in space tomorrow because, as attested to in the tagline for the movie Alien, in space, no one can hear you scream.

Posts by President Trump and Elon Musk roiled the space community, raising the prospect of an earlier-than-planned return for the Starliner crew.

NASA astronaut Suni Williams set a female spacewalk record after venturing outside the International Space Station with fellow Boeing Starliner crew member.