Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station to swab the orbiting lab for evidence of microorganisms.

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.”

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

A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is already scheduled to return the astronauts under a plan announced by NASA in August.

"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," Cheryl Warner, NASA's news chief at the agency's headquarters, said in a statement to reporters.

Air Force None After leaving the federal government's operations in shambles and causing major confusion over healthcare funding, SpaceX CEO and White House advisor Elon Musk is prioritizing the delivery of a pair of luxurious Boeing 747s so he and president Donald Trump can jet around in style.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams embarked on a mission to the International Space Station in 2024 with a timeline that has been anything but straightforward.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said President Trump has asked the company to bring home the two NASA astronauts from Boeing’s Starliner mission on board the ISS “as soon as possible.”

Elon Musk used his new government efficiency role to stop by the operations of his competitor Boeing to look into the long-delayed efforts to renovate two 747 jets into the next generation of Air Force One jets,

NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX are racing to bring back astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, stranded on the ISS due to Boeing Starliner delays.

Despite the statement from President Trump, NASA had already scheduled the astronauts' return for late March or April.