President Donald Trump thanked NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro for helping the two stranded astronauts make their way home to Earth and cited her team of “geniuses” for making the return possible. 

Trump said he had asked SpaceX owner Elon Musk, a key ally of his administration, to rescue astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who have been stranded on the International Space Station for nine months while on a mission intended to last a week. The president blamed his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, and his administration for failing to bring the astronauts home, claiming the Biden administration was “incapable of doing so.”