Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been on an unexpectedly monthslong assignment after serving on Boeing’s Starliner crewed test flight, are conducting a spacewalk Thursday. The duo is venturing outside the International Space Station to remove degraded radio communications hardware.

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.”

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,

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

Two NASA astronauts flew to the International Space Station in June on Boeing's Starliner capsule. The test flight was planned for eight days but technical troubles forced the capsule to return empty.

"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.

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.

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.

Boeing hasn't been having the best of luck this year. Two Astronauts stuck in space because of mechanical failures on a Boeing spacecraft, only adds to the pile of blunders. But how did this happen? and what are the astronauts going to do now?

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.”

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore originally expected to spend just a week in space after their arrival in June last year.