The return of four individuals from the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft Freedom on March 18 concluded the Crew-9 mission, but not without significant political controversy. The mission involved NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov, who launched in September, along with NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who arrived in June on Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner. Their extended stay, initially planned for only eight days, was prolonged due to problems with the Starliner's thrusters. This necessitated a crew swap, resulting in the removal of astronauts Zena Cardman and Stephanie Wilson from Crew-9 to accommodate Williams and Wilmore’s return.
The spacecraft’s splashdown off the Florida coast was technically flawless. However, the mission's timeline became entangled in political debate. NASA shortened the handover between Crew-9 and their replacements (Crew-10), citing favorable weather conditions. Bill Spetch, NASA’s operations integration manager, acknowledged that this compressed timeline resulted in less time for Crew-9 to share crucial institutional knowledge, though he stressed that emergency procedures received priority. “A lot of the handover we do with the crews is more set up to be an efficiency gain, and that really helps them be more effective,” he explained, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive handovers.
The extended mission of Williams and Wilmore, lasting 286 days, ignited a saga. They were frequently labeled as “stranded,” a characterization NASA repeatedly refuted, even after their safe return. Steve Stich, NASA’s commercial crew program manager, stated, “We always had a lifeboat, a way for them to come home…And then it really became, when is the right time? When is the right time to bring them back?”
The controversy escalated when Elon Musk claimed President Trump had requested an expedited return. Both Musk and Trump alleged that the Biden administration had rejected a SpaceX proposal for an earlier return, a claim refuted by current and former NASA officials. President Trump, in a Truth Social post, stated that he spoke with Janet Petro, NASA’s acting administrator, who, according to Trump, agreed to an earlier return. “Janet was great. She said, ‘Let’s bring them home NOW, Sir!’ — And I thanked her,” Trump wrote.
A NASA spokesperson responded, stating Petro spoke with President Trump and expressed enthusiasm for the return, but offered no further details. Petro herself stated in a press release that NASA and SpaceX worked diligently to bring the return forward a month, following Trump’s instruction. However, Stich clarified that a delay in the Crew-10 launch due to issues with a new Crew Dragon spacecraft prompted a swap of spacecraft, resulting in an earlier than originally anticipated return, though still later than initially planned.
NASA officials addressed the political implications cautiously. Joel Montalbano, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, acknowledged that the Trump administration’s input “gave us some energy in the system,” while maintaining NASA’s commitment to working effectively with any administration.