Following a ‘heartfelt’ thank you message from stranded NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore just before their return to Earth, Elon Musk has offered his own simple reply on social media.

Elon Musk has played a key role in the retrieval of the two stranded astronauts stuck upon the International Space Station for 285 days, despite initial plans projecting their stay to be only eight days in total.

SpaceX – which Musk is CEO and founder of – was awarded the contract by NASA to bring Williams and Wilmore back to Earth after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft was decommissioned following technical faults.

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Williams and Wilmore are finally on their way back to Earth after 285 days in space (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

However, issues with SpaceX’s own Crew Dragon spacecrafts caused further delays which persisted up until the very last minute, despite US President Donald Trump’s insistence that Musk needs to ‘go get’ the stranded pair.

Both Musk and Trump have laid the blame for the delay on the Biden administration, which the former claims was ‘extremely antagonistic’ towards him and his company, but regardless of the reasonings both astronauts are finally on their way back home.

Their SpaceX flight departed from the International Space Station at 1:05 a.m. EST on March 18, and NASA has outlined the exact time that they are expected to land into the ocean just off the coast of Florida this evening.

However, just before they departed they managed to record a short video thanking both Musk and President Trump for their efforts in retrieving them from space, as both have been missing their families.

“All of us have the utmost respect for Mr. Musk and obviously respect and admiration for the President of the United States Donald Trump,” outlined Wilmore in the message.

“We appreciate them, we appreciate all that they do for us […] and we’re thankful that they’re in the positions that they’re in.”

Williams also jokingly added: “We’re coming back before long, so you know don’t make all those plans without me!”

Sharing the video on his X profile, Elon Musk replied simply with an emoji-filled message: “❤️🚀🚀❤️.”

Previous interactions between the astronauts and both Musk and Trump have been somewhat contrasting though, with juxtaposing showings of support and criticism.

Butch Wilmore, for example, seemingly confirmed Musk’s accusations against the Biden administration by adding that he ‘believes’ him, but in the same statement he also indicated that politics weren’t playing into their delayed return, and that he had no information regarding the deals that were offered between the former government and SpaceX.

Additionally, Williams has criticized Musk’s push to rapidly deplatform the International Space Station, indicating that doing so would be wasting taxpayers money and a waste of the ‘world class science’ that the ISS labs are capable of.

President Trump also made a bizarre claim that Williams and Wilmore might have fallen in love, which I doubt that they’re including as part of their thankful message