*

Trump asks Musk's SpaceX to return NASA astronauts from

ISS

*

Astronauts were already assigned a SpaceX flight home

*

Trump offers no details on how the return would change

(Adds NASA statement in paragraph 5, background in paragraphs

15 onward)

By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) -

NASA affirmed on Wednesday a plan it set last year to work

with Elon Musk's SpaceX in returning two astronauts from the

International Space Station, saying it will do so "as soon as

practical," the day after President Donald Trump suggested he

wants a quicker return for the crew.

On Tuesday night, Trump said he had asked Elon Musk's

SpaceX to return two NASA astronauts from the International

Space Station, who were already scheduled to fly back on a

SpaceX capsule in March.

Earlier, Musk said Trump had asked him to return the two

astronauts "as soon as possible," suggesting a change to NASA's

current plan for a late March return. "We will do so," Musk

said.

"I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to 'go get' the 2

brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by

the Biden Administration," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "They

have been waiting for many months on @Space Station. Elon will

soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck

Elon!!!"

The astronauts were left on the ISS because of problems with

Boeing's ( BA ) Starliner capsule, which led NASA in August to tap

SpaceX for their return instead. Former President Joe Biden and

his White House had no involvement in the agency's

decision-making on the mission.

Trump's demand that SpaceX retrieve veteran NASA astronauts

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been assigned a SpaceX

ride home since August, was an unusual intervention by a U.S.

president into NASA's operations that caught many agency

officials by surprise, two officials said.

Wilmore and Williams are among seven astronauts on the

ISS, and they remain healthy and busy with routine scientific

research aboard the station, NASA has said.

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."

Wilmore and Williams flew Boeing's ( BA ) Starliner spacecraft to

the ISS last summer for an eight-day test mission that instead

has lasted nearly a year because of problems with the craft's

propulsion system.

NASA in August, during Biden's administration, deemed

Starliner too risky to bring them back to Earth and tapped

SpaceX to return them on a Crew Dragon spacecraft.

That craft is already docked with the space station, having

flown there for NASA's Crew-9 astronaut rotation mission in

September with empty seats for Wilmore and Williams.

The astronauts' original February departure date on Crew-9

was delayed to late March because SpaceX needed more time "to

complete processing" of a new Crew Dragon capsule that will

replace theirs for the Crew-10 mission, NASA said in December.

The agency has a delicately coordinated ISS schedule, and an

early Crew-9 return might leave the station's U.S. contingent

understaffed.

It had been unclear whether Trump's demand would mean NASA

bringing Crew-9 back to Earth before the Crew-10 capsule

arrives, or SpaceX launching Crew-10 earlier than planned. While

NASA appeared to affirm the astronaut's return plan remains

unchanged, it did not answer a question on whether the Crew-10

launch date would be sooner.

Returning Crew-9 to Earth before Crew-10's arrival would

mean NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who flew to the ISS with a

Russian crew in September, would be the only American aboard the

station, a rare staffing imbalance that NASA has said

complicates maintenance of the station's U.S. components.

Though Starliner's development since 2019 has been a

persistent challenge for Boeing ( BA ), rife with engineering troubles

and cost overruns, some Trump advisers in recent months have

sought to blame Biden, although the former president had no

involvement in Starliner's development.

NASA since 2020 has used SpaceX's Crew Dragon to ferry U.S.

astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The

spacecraft was developed under a more than $3 billion NASA

contract under the agency's Commercial Crew Program, a program

created under former U.S. president Barack Obama.

Boeing's ( BA ) Starliner was developed under the same program

in a roughly $4.5 billion contract but has faced uncrewed

testing mishaps and an array of engineering challenges.

Wilmore and Williams' mission marked Starliner's first

crewed flight and was intended to be its final test before it

conducts routine missions. But Starliner's propulsion system

issues forced NASA to

bring it back uncrewed

in September and threw its development future into

uncertainty.