Stranded astronauts Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams are nearing their return date, and have now revealed the hardest factor of their nine-month stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Butch and Suni were originally sent up for an eight-day mission by NASA, blasting off from Earth in a Boeing Starliner that ran into a number of technical issues on its way to the ISS.

After stepping aboard the space station in June, neither would have thought that they’d be off the face of the planet for three quarters of a year.

A target date of 12 March has been set for their return mission to launch.

Despite claims from Elon Musk that he offered to bring them back even earlier, which has since been rebuffed by senior figures at NASA, the pair can now look forward to feeling the effects of gravity again.

Musk has been involved in bringing the pair back though, as NASA began working with SpaceX last year.

Wilmore and Williams have become part of the furniture on the ISS, helping to run and maintain the station, even completing a spacewalk in January.

Now, the astronauts are waiting until their replacements arrive next week so that they can check out of ISS for good.

Their extended stay will have taken a toll on their bodies too, as a doctor revealed that they would probably need a six-week rehabilitation programme at the very least, to regain their strength.

They’ve been in space for nine months (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Reflecting on their stay, Williams revealed the hardest part of the pair’s unplanned stay aboard the spacecraft.

It’s all to do with the fact that they’ve been unable to see their families and loved ones, adding: “It’s been a roller coaster for them, probably a little more so than for us.”

They will be joined on their ride home by two other astronauts on the SpaceX capsule, who will be making their way to the ISS with two empty seats.

The Boeing Starliner that Wilmore and Williams arrived on faced so many problems that it was deemed safer to allow it to fly back to Earth, unmanned.

Their return was delayed further after time was needed to complete the SpaceX capsule that will be used to bring them home.

They said that they were prepared to stay as long as it took (YouTube/NASA)

It is said by NASA that the crews will spend a week together aboard the ISS before departing.

Wilmore and Williams have insisted throughout their stay that they are healthy, and have been prepared to stay onboard as long as it may take.

Williams explained on Tuesday: “We came up prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short. That’s what we do in human space flight.

“That’s what your nation’s human space flight program is all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that.”

NASA’s stranded astronauts have responded to Elon Musk’s offer to bring them home from the International Space Station (ISS).

Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams departed Earth on 5 June last year onboard the Boeing Starliner capsule, docking on the ISS for what was meant to be an eight-day mission.

But now, nine months down the line, the pair are still orbiting our planet thanks to several technical issues in the mission.

While a target date of 12 March has been set for their return mission to launch, it turns out that the astronauts could have returned to Earth much sooner, if Elon Musk is to be believed.

It was announced last year that NASA would be working with Musk and SpaceX to rescue Wilmore and Williams in February, but the one month delay won’t matter too much in the grand scheme of things for the astronauts.

Following technical issues with The Starliner, the astronauts have been stranded in space, with the ship returning to Earth, unmanned.

Wilmore and Williams have been helping to run the ISS during their time in space, even completing a spacewalk.

In an interview with CNN in February, Williams insisted: “We’re doing pretty darn good, actually. You know, we’ve got food, we’ve got clothes. We have great crew members up here,

“We don’t feel abandoned. We don’t feel stuck. We don’t feel stranded,” she explained, adding that they prepared for everything before setting off.

The astronauts have commented on Elon Musk’s claims of rescuing them (YouTube/NASA)

Musk has commented on the situation several times, even getting into a spat on X with European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and former ISS commander Andreas Mogensen.

The Tesla CEO claimed that he offered to bring them home earlier, blaming the final decision on political reasons, resulting in him calling the astronaut a ‘r****d’ after he called him out for lying.

“The real issue is that they did not want positive press for someone who supported Trump. That’s it. End of story,” he claimed on X.

In a news conference that was broadcast on YouTube yesterday (4 March), Wilmore spoke about Musk’s claims, saying: “From my standpoint, politics is not playing into this at all.

“We came up prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short. That’s what we do in human space flight.

“That’s what your nation’s human space flight program is all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that.”

The astronaut then revealed that he had not heard of Musk’s offer, saying: “I can only say that Mr Musk, what he says is absolutely factual.

“We have no information on that though whatsoever; what was offered, what was not offered, who it was offered to, how that processes went. That’s information that we simply don’t have, so I believe him.

“I don’t know all those details and I don’t think any of us really can give you the answer that maybe that you would be hoping for,” the astronaut revealed.

The pair have been in space since June (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

But beyond them, NASA’s former deputy administrator and former astronaut, Pam Melroy, said that she didn’t hear of his offer either.

“An offer to bring the crew home early, it never came to headquarters,” she said to Bloomberg last month.

Melroy said that Musk didn’t speak to the ‘senior leadership’ at NASA about the offer.

While the astronauts are expected to return on 19 or 20 March, barring any delays, a doctor revealed that they will likely need a six-week rehabilitation programme at the very least, to regain their strength.

Two astronauts who have been stranded in space for over nine months will face a gruelling rehabilitation programme when they finally return to Earth, a doctor has revealed.

Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams blasted up to space on June 5, 2024, in a mission that was supposed to last just eight days.

However, technical issues with the ship have extended their stay well into 2025, with the duo memorably spending Christmas Day in space. Whether they were able to catch Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl up there is currently unclear, but I’m sure it’s on their watchlist.

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stranded in space since June 2024 (Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP)

Nine months on, and the duo are finally able to contemplate a reunion with their families and friends, with the Space X vessel currently scheduled for a return on either March 19 or March 20 (you have to give NASA credit for putting a date on it, given the history of the mission so far).

After nine months of floating around in space, the first thing I’d want to do is get back into my own bed, but the astronauts won’t even get the chance to do that. Instead, stretchers are likely to transport them directly from the spaceship to a medical facility, where their rehabilitation programme will begin.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Dr Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist and Air Force veteran, said the astronauts will likely need at least six weeks of rehabilitation to regain their strength, which will include guided exercise and a nutritional plan. The first phase of the recovery process will focus on walking and muscle strengthening, as despite astronauts reportedly exercising for two hours a day in space, they are still likely to lose bone density and musculature.

He said: “The human body needs the Earth’s gravitational pull, and in an absence of that, a lot of things are not functioning correctly. The reality is, they’re effectively getting a fraction of the sort of exercise that we all take for granted just by walking in [Earth’s] gravity,

“Invariably, despite them doing all the right things (which I know they are) you’re going to see a decrease in muscle mass and strength — no question.”

Dr Gupta also raised concerns about the astronauts exposure to radiation and the risks of cancer.

He said: “If I was their physician, I would think about a more proactive strategy for cancer screening. We want to take a different approach here, given that they had such a unique exposure history.”

Suni has herself spoken about how she has ‘been trying to remember what it’s like to walk’, while President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have also discussed the ongoing rescue plans.

Hopefully, it’s not too much longer now until we see Suni and Butch back on home turf, and their rehabilitation process goes more smoothly than the mission did.

The furore over Elon Musk’s productivity email debacle rumbles on as Donald Trump now appears to have given his backing to dismiss any federal worker who doesn’t respond.

In case you missed it, here’s a recap: Over the weekend, presidential ‘first buddy’ and head of the DOGE department Elon Musk emailed US federal employees requesting a bullet point list of five things they accomplished in the last week.

“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager,” the email read, adding that employees shouldn’t send any classified information and reply by Monday (24 February) 11:59pm EST.

Otherwise, they may find their jobs meeting the business end of Musk’s new bureaucracy chainsaw.

Elon Musk has made no secret of his DOGE ambitions (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Understandably, the federal employees of the US were a little confused by the late night email and whether or not they would be required to reply, given the fact that Musk isn’t officially a government employee and his hiring/firing powers therefore unclear.

The situation was further complicated when several department heads, such as the directors of the FBI and National Intelligence, informed their employees to ignore the HR request.

Now you may be wondering where does the US President stand on all of this? And does Musk actually have the backing to threaten to fire people?

Well it would seem the 78-year-old leader is fully onboard with the idea, telling reporters that anyone who doesn’t answer will be fired, or ‘semi-fired’ – whatever that means.

“What he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working,” Trump said during a meeting with the French President (via AP).

“And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired, because a lot of people aren’t answering because they don’t even exist.”

The deadline has been and gone for the productivity email, prompting Musk to extend the cut-off and reissue his warning about termination.

For some reason, the President of France was even present to hear the update (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Taking to X, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO retweeted a string of messages in support of his productivity email and seemed to be rather irked that employees hadn’t followed his request.

“The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send,” he wrote.

“Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers

“Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent?”

Musk then added that ‘subject to the discretion of the President’ employees have been given another chance to to reply.

“Failure to respond a second time will result in termination,” he added.