Sunita Williams Returns: Musk's 'thank you' note for Trump after SpaceX capsule successfully brings back NASA astronauts

This screengrab made from a NASA video shows astronauts Butch Wilmore (L) and Suni Williams (R) posing for pictures before departing from the International Space Station on March 18, 2025. (AFP Photo)

Elon Musk stuck to a very political stance in his ‘thank you’ note for US President Donald Trump as he congratulated NASA and SpaceX for the successful return of astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore for the International Space Station after nine months.

Musk took to X, which he owns, and posted the thank you message quoting the SpaceX’s splashdown clip. Congratulations to the @SpaceX and @NASA teams for another safe astronaut return,” Musk said on X formerly known as Twitter. The second line in his message showed that stance that both Musk and Trump have maintained – that the Biden administration left the astronauts and delayed their return to Earth. “Thank you to @POTUS for prioritizing this mission,” Musk added.

Congratulations to the @SpaceX and @NASA teams for another safe astronaut return!Thank you to @POTUS for prioritizing this mission! https://t.co/KknFDbh59s Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 18, 2025

In an interview to Fox News, Trump also gave a huge shoutout to Musk saying ““When I got into office, I said ‘Elon, we gotta get them out of there.’” While the Trump administration has been very vocal about the return of the astronauts being their mission, NASA has downplayed the politics surrounding the journey of the astronauts who have been up in space for nine months after the Boeing Starliner developed a technical complication.

In the post-splashdown news conference, NASA officials repeatedly spoke about ‘vehicle readiness’. NASA’s deputy associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate Joel Montalbano did say that the agency ““got the input from the White House.” But he quickly added that the vehicle readiness, weather etc have to be kept in mind.

Musk has maintained that he had offered to bring back the astronauts in a separate mission to someone in the Joe Biden administration. However, the SpaceX boss said that his offer was turned down. The details of the rejected offer and to who the offer was made have never been made public