How Stranded Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s Mission Went Awry

In February, President Donald Trump claimed in a Truth Social post that Williams and Wilmore had been “virtually abandoned” in space amid their eight-day-turned-eight-month journey. However, following the headline-making comment, the astronauts pushed back on the president’s claim. 

“We don’t feel abandoned,” Wilmore insisted to CNN’s Anderson Cooper in a Feb. 13 interview. “We don’t feel stuck. We don’t feel stranded. We come prepared. We come committed.”

Williams interjected during the interview that the pair were “doing pretty darn good, actually.”

“We’ve got food, we’ve got clothes, we have great crew members up here,” she continued. “Of course, it was a little bit longer stay than we had expected, but both of us have trained to live and work on the International Space Station and I think we’ve made the most of it.”

During the interview, Wilmore and Williams also confirmed they’d be returning to Earth when SpaceX launches its Dragon capsule March 12. 

“They’ll come here, rendezvous and dock,” Wilmore explained. “We’ll do a turnover for about a week and we will return on or about the 19th of March.”