`Promise Made, Promise Kept`: White House, Elon Musk On Sunita Williams`s Safe Return To Earth After 9 Months-OxBig News Network

United States President Donald Trump had pledged to rescue the astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore stuck in space for nine months and that promise has been kept, the White House said on Wednesday after the NASA astronauts safely returned to Earth after nine months of being stranded in the International Space Station for a mission which was supposed to end in eight days.

Following their safe return, the White House asserted how Trump prioritised the return of stranded NASA Crew-9 astronauts Sunita Williams, Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The White House stated that the astronauts safely returned to the Gulf of America, crediting Elon Musk for their safe return.

“PROMISE MADE, PROMISE KEPT: President Trump pledged to rescue the astronauts stranded in space for nine months. Today, they safely splashed down in the Gulf of America, thanks to Elon Musk, SpaceX, and NASA!,” the White House said in a post on X.

PROMISE MADE, PROMISE KEPT: President Trump pledged to rescue the astronauts stranded in space for nine months.

Today, they safely splashed down in the Gulf of America, thanks to @ElonMusk, @SpaceX, and @NASA! pic.twitter.com/r01hVWAC8S
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 18, 2025

Billionaire and Space X owner Elon Musk congratulated the NASA and SpaceX teams on their successful return and thanked Trump for prioritising the mission. “Congratulations to the SpaceX and NASA teams for another safe astronaut return! Thank you to Donald Trump for prioritizing this mission!”

Earlier in the day, NASA Crew-9 astronauts breathed earthly air for the first time in over nine months following the successful splashdown of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. CNN reported that the astronauts disembarked the capsule on stretchers, as customary. This precaution is taken by SpaceX for all astronauts returning from long-duration space missions.

For NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, an eight-day mission to the International Space Station turned out to be a challenge of a lifetime as problems cropped up on their Boeing space flight that stretched her stay in orbit to over nine months. Williams and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore bid farewell to the International Space Station, their home since last June, departing aboard a SpaceX capsule alongside two other astronauts.

The capsule undocked from the space station on Tuesday and splashed down off the Florida coast on Wednesday morning, after clocking 286 days in space. This was Williams’ third space flight and she has clocked a cumulative 608 days in space.