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

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.

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

SpaceX and Vast Space are looking for research ideas to fly aboard Vast's new Haven-1 space station launching later this year.

The founder of SpaceX said President Trump had asked his company to return two astronauts aboard the space station to Earth “as soon as possible.” NASA said it would do that “as soon as practical.”

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.

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.

NASA is set to collaborate with SpaceX to return astronauts from the ISS amidst plans for further cosmic exploration. Samples from asteroid Bennu suggest the presence of life's building blocks. Meanwhile,

The pair have been stranded in the International Space Station since last June and likely won't return until late March or early April.

Starliner co-pilot Sunita Williams is now the world's most experienced female spacewalker, moving up to number four overall.

Hungary’s Tibor Kapu (from left), India’s Shubhanshu Shukla, Axiom’s Peggy Whitson, and Poland’s Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski comprise the crew of Axiom Mission 4. [Courtesy: SpaceX]