Donald Trump tasks Elon Musk, Space X to bring home stranded NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore

Billionaire Elon Musk has announced his company Space X has been asked by President Donald Trump to return two astronauts stranded in space back to Earth.

Astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore, both veteran NASA astronauts and former US Navy test pilots, were launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner from Florida on June 5.

They docked the next day at the ISS, where they were scheduled to spend eight days.

However, a series of issues with Starliner’s propulsion system has extended their mission, currently having spent 238 days, stranded without a concrete plan to return home.

Mr Musk confirmed the development on X on Tuesday, saying: “The POTUS has asked SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible.”

“We will do so.”

Mr Musk, who had originally offered to help NASA bring Suni and Butch home, mounted criticism on former President Joe Biden for not acting on the matter sooner.

“Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.”

One person commented on Mr Musk’s X post saying the Biden administration “hated you more than they wanted to rescue those astronauts”.

Mr Musk replied: “True.”