Jean Luc and Peter Mingils host a Radio show on Friday’s. Jean Luc is a man, French born, and now California resident with a cool French accent. He is an entrepreneur, a sailboat owner, and captain and 2020 heart transplant survivor. Peter Mingils started working with Jean Luc almost a decade ago when he was a customer of PM Marketing Network Leads and this is their 423rd radio show. I think, on Building Fortunes Radio.
https://networkleads.com is the website where Jean Luc got started. This was ordered in 1998 and is still working today. Building Fortunes is the domain name oif the affiliate site.
On this radio show, Jean Luc starts the cinversation with SpaceX returning astronauts fomr the International Space Station.
How SpaceX Brought Two Stranded Astronauts Home from the ISS
On March 18, 2025, a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida’s coast, carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth after an unexpected nine-month stay on the International Space Station (ISS). Their journey began as a short test flight aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in June 2024, but technical failures transformed it into a long-duration mission. While some, including President Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, framed their situation as being “abandoned” by the Biden administration, the reality involves a complex interplay of engineering challenges, NASA planning, and SpaceX’s pivotal role in ensuring their safe return. Here’s how SpaceX stepped in to resolve this high-stakes space saga.
The Starliner Setback: A Mission Gone Awry
Wilmore and Williams launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 5, 2024, aboard Boeing’s Starliner for its first crewed test flight. The plan was simple: an eight-day mission to dock with the ISS, evaluate the spacecraft’s performance, and return. Both were seasoned astronauts—Wilmore, a retired Navy test pilot with two prior spaceflights, and Williams, a veteran of two long-duration ISS missions totaling over 500 days in space. Their expertise made them ideal candidates for this milestone in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which aims to certify private spacecraft for regular ISS missions.
But trouble struck soon after launch. Starliner encountered helium leaks and propulsion issues, including thruster malfunctions, during its journey to the ISS. It docked successfully on June 6, but engineers at NASA and Boeing spent weeks assessing the problems. By August, the verdict was clear: Starliner wasn’t safe for a crewed return. The spacecraft’s custom-fitted seats—crucial for protecting astronauts during reentry—were on board, but NASA deemed the risks too high. On September 6, 2024, Starliner returned to Earth empty, landing in New Mexico without its crew. Wilmore and Williams were left on the ISS, their brief trip now indefinite.
Life Aboard the ISS: Adapting to the Unexpected
Far from helpless, Wilmore and Williams integrated into the ISS’s Expedition 71/72 crews. NASA always trains astronauts for extended stays, and the station was well-stocked with supplies—food, water, oxygen—thanks to recent resupply missions. Over nine months, they logged over 900 hours of research, from blood clotting studies to plant growth experiments, and even performed a spacewalk together. Williams, promoted to ISS commander, broke the record for most career spacewalking hours by a woman (nine walks). Wilmore tackled maintenance, like fixing a toilet, proving their value beyond the original mission.
Yet their extended stay wasn’t without challenges. They missed family, friends, and Williams’ two dogs, as she noted in a March 2025 press call. The psychological toll of uncertainty lingered, but both dismissed the “abandoned” label. “We don’t feel stranded,” Wilmore told The New York Times. “It’s work. It’s fun. It’s been trying at times, but ‘stuck’? No.” Their resilience underscored NASA’s contingency planning, but the question remained: how to get them home?
SpaceX Enters the Scene: The Crew-9 Solution
NASA had a backup: SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, a proven spacecraft from Elon Musk’s company, which had been ferrying astronauts to the ISS since 2020. The plan emerged in August 2024—Wilmore and Williams would return with the Crew-9 mission, already scheduled to rotate ISS crew members. On September 28, 2024, a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral carrying NASA’s Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. The Dragon capsule, dubbed “Freedom,” docked with the ISS on September 29 with two empty seats—deliberately reserved for Wilmore and Williams.
This wasn’t a dramatic “rescue” in the Hollywood sense. The capsule could’ve returned them earlier, but NASA prioritized station staffing. Sending a dedicated mission was ruled out by Commercial Crew Program chief Steve Stich and ISS manager Dana Bowersox due to cost ($100–$150 million per Dragon flight) and safety logistics—new custom seats for reentry took time to install. The Crew-9 craft, fitted with those seats in September, stayed docked, waiting for its full mission cycle to conclude.
Political Noise and a Timeline Shift
The astronauts’ plight became a political football in early 2025. After Trump’s January 20 inauguration, he and Musk claimed the Biden administration had left Wilmore and Williams stranded for political reasons—perhaps to avoid pre-election embarrassment over Starliner’s flop. On January 28, Trump posted on Truth Social, “I have just asked Elon Musk and SpaceX to ‘go get’ the 2 brave astronauts virtually abandoned in space.” Musk echoed this on X, alleging he’d offered a rescue last year, rebuffed by Biden for “political reasons.”
NASA and the astronauts refuted this. The Crew-9 return was set for late February 2025, delayed to March due to Crew-10 prep (a new Dragon needed battery fixes). Trump’s push moved it up slightly—NASA swapped in a used capsule, speeding safety reviews. Joel Montalbano, ISS chief, confirmed this tweak post-splashdown, but the core plan predated Trump’s term. Wilmore, asked about Musk’s claims, trusted him but lacked details: “We have no information on what was offered.”
The Final Journey: Crew-9’s Return
The endgame began March 14, 2025, when Crew-10—Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Takuya Onishi, and Kirill Peskov—launched to replace Crew-9. They docked on March 15, ensuring the ISS stayed staffed. On March 18, at 1:05 AM EDT, the Crew-9 Dragon undocked with Wilmore, Williams, Hague, and Gorbunov aboard. NASA livestreamed the 17-hour descent—hatch closure, deorbit burn, and reentry at 17,000 mph. Four parachutes slowed the capsule, which splashed down off Tallahassee at 5:57 PM EDT, greeted by dolphins.
Recovery teams hoisted the Dragon onto a ship, opened the hatch, and extracted the crew on stretchers (standard protocol). Hague emerged first, grinning, followed by Gorbunov, Williams (waving big), and Wilmore (two thumbs up). After health checks, they helicoptered to shore and flew to Houston’s Johnson Space Center for debriefing.
SpaceX’s Role: Not a Rescue, but a Lifeline
SpaceX didn’t “save” Wilmore and Williams from abandonment—NASA never lost control. But its reliable Crew Dragon was the linchpin. Boeing’s failure left a gap; SpaceX filled it, proving its edge in the Commercial Crew Program. Musk’s bravado and Trump’s rhetoric aside, the mission’s success rested on years of NASA-SpaceX collaboration—Crew Dragon’s tenth human flight, executed flawlessly.
Williams logged 608 days in space across three missions, second only to Peggy Whitson among Americans. Wilmore called it “a roller coaster,” but both embraced the ride. SpaceX didn’t storm the ISS with a cavalry charge—it delivered a routine, critical service, turning a stranded narrative into a testament of adaptability and partnership.
