- SpaceXwill bring two NASA astronauts back from the International Space Station this month after a damaged spacecraft extended their eight-day journey into a nine-month commision. SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk said he believes the two astronauts were stuck in space for political reasons and he could have rescued them sooner. The astronauts say they believe Musk and have been left in the dark about what really happened.
World’s richest man Elon Musk will help bring two NASA astronauts back to Earth after a Boeing spacecraft suffered technical issues leaving the two aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for nine months; He claims it could have been done sooner.
On June 5, 2024, Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams embarked for the ISS on the Boeing Starliner. The long-time NASA astronauts were set to stay for eight days, but the spacecraft suffered multiple technical issues en route to space.
NASA deemed the Starliner too risky to carry astronauts back to Earth and sent the spacecraft home without its crew in September, leaving the two without a ride home.
Now, the NASA astronauts are set to return on March 19 or 20, but they will make their return to Earth with SpaceX, aboard its Crew-9 return flight.
Last year, Musk offered to help bring the two astronauts home sooner than planned, but he claims he was rejected by the Biden administration.
“They were left up there for political reasons, which is not good,” Musk said in an interview alongside President Donald Trump with Fox News host Sean Hannity.
In a separate interview last week with Joe Rogan, Musk said the Biden administration intentionally “pushed the return date past the inauguration date” in an effort to downplay Trump and his allies’ successes.
“There’s no way that they’re going to make anyone who’s supporting Trump look good,” Musk told Rogan.
In a Tuesday press conference, Williams and Wilmore were asked to confirm the credibility of Musk’s statements about the Biden administration. Wilmore said it “is absolutely factual,” while still choosing his words carefully so as not to pick sides.
“Obviously, we’ve heard some of these different things that have been said,” Wilmore said. “I can tell you at the outset, all of us have the utmost respect for Mr. Musk and obviously, respect and admiration for our president of the United States, Donald Trump. The words they’ve said, politics, I mean, that’s part of life. We understand that. And there’s an important reason why we have a political system and the political system that we do have, and we’re behind it 100%.”
Wilmore added he and Williams were left in the dark with “no information whatsoever” on what actually went down behind closed doors.
“That’s information that we simply don’t have, so I believe him,” Wilmore said.
Although it’s unclear whether NASA controlled the information that Wilmore and Williams received during their extended stay in space, the ISS does have internet access on board, according to NASA’s website, which means there’s a possibility they could have heard about Musk’s intentions to help bring the two astronauts home.
While NASA did not initially respond to Fortune’s request for comment, the federal space agency has previously denied any claims of political involvement impacting the timeline of the astronauts’ return.
“I can tell you unequivocally, from a personal standpoint, that politics has not played any part in this decision,” then-NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said on Aug. 24. “It absolutely has nothing to do with it.”
As the astronauts await their trip back to earth, morale is strong aboard the ISS.
“We’re doing pretty darn good, actually. You know, we’ve got food, we’ve got clothes, We have great crew members up here,” Williams told CNN in February. “We don’t feel abandoned. We don’t feel stuck. We don’t feel stranded.”SpaceX did not return Fortune’s request for comment.
