During an interview Wednesday on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show, the go-to place for wild assertions certain to go unchecked, Elon Musk and Donald Trump claimed former President Joe Biden “deliberately stranded” NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore’s mission aboard the International Space Station.
It’s a bogus claim, one that’s been repeated across the MAGA-verse. Musk went on to suggest Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore were left aboard the International Space Station for unspecified “political reasons.” He was challenged Thursday on X by Andreas Mogensen, commander of the European Space Agency.
“What a lie!” Mogensen wrote. “And from someone who complains about lack of honesty from the mainstream media.”
Mogensen is correct — NASA has a plan to bring the duo home, and it involves Musk-owned SpaceX.
But Musk is not one to let facts get in the way of childish insults.
“You are fully ret–ded,” responded. “SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago. I OFFERED THIS DIRECTLY to the Biden administration and they refused. Return WAS pushed back for political reasons. Idiot.”
Mogensen, the first Dane in space, replied diplomatically.
“Elon, I have long admired you and what you have accomplished, especially at SpaceX and Tesla,” he posted on X. “You know as well as I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since last September. Even now, you are not sending up a rescue ship to bring them home. They are returning on the Dragon capsule that has been on ISS since last September.”
Musk has since gone ghost on Mogensen.
In the Fox News interview, Hannity asked Musk and Trump about the “abandoned astronauts.
“At the President’s request,” Musk tells Hannity, “we are accelerating the return of the astronauts, which was postponed kind of to a ridiculous degree,” he said.
“They got left in space,” Trump interjected. It’s not the first time he’s spread that falsehood.
NASA is targeting March 12 for the launch of Crew-10, which will carry three astronauts and a cosmonaut to the International Space Station. Once successfully docked, the spacecraft will bring Williams and Wilmore back to Earth. The astronauts have been stuck in space since last June after their Boeing Starliner capsule was beset with technical issues.
As Starliner approached the ISS, Williams and Wilmore noticed problems with some of its thrusters. The astronauts were able to successfully dock with the space station, but NASA and Boeing decided to study the issue in detail.
According to Space.com, the investigation lasted several weeks, during which time NASA continued to delay Williams and Wilmore’s return. During that time, NASA reassured the public that Starliner served as a lifeboat to bring the astronauts home.
“I want to make it very clear that Butch and Suni are not stranded in space,” NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich said during a June 28 press conference.
