Danish Astronaut Criticises Musk's Claim That Politics Delayed ISS Crew's Flight
While responding to the recent controversy, Danish astronaut Andreas “Andy” Mogensen criticised the Tesla CEO Elon Musk for his claim that former President Joe Biden had intentionally abandoned astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore on the International Space Station (ISS).
On Thursday, Mogensen shared a Fox News clip on X featuring Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump, where Musk alleged that NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams were left stranded in the orbital outpost due to “political reasons” by the Biden administration, adding that the new administration is now coming to their rescue.
“What a lie. And from someone who complains about a lack of honesty from the mainstream media,” wrote the 48-year-old European Space Agency astronaut on X. Mogensen has flown to the ISS twice, including onboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule during a 2023 mission.
In response, Musk called Mogensen “fully retarded” and added, “SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago.” He also claimed to have made an offer to the Biden administration to bring them home but did not elaborate on the details.
Replying to Musk, Mogensen wrote, “Elon, I have long admired you and what you have accomplished, especially at SpaceX and Tesla. 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 the ISS since last September.”
Wilmore and Williams flew to the ISS in June on Boeing’s Starliner for what was meant to be an eight-day test mission to certify the new spacecraft. However, due to thruster issues, NASA decided to return Starliner without its crew and instead tasked SpaceX with bringing the veteran astronauts home.
Later, NASA announced that the pair would return on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission’s spaceship, which would launch in September with a reduced crew of two instead of four to accommodate them. Their return voyage was initially scheduled for February but later shifted to March due to delays by SpaceX in preparing the spacecraft for Crew-10, which will replace Crew-9. If an alternate rescue plan could have been executed sooner, Musk has not provided details.
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Why Mission Extended for Months?
The Starliner, built as part of NASA’s commercial crew program to develop independent spacecraft for ferrying astronauts to and from the space station, ran into propulsion problems and helium leaks shortly after launch. These issues prompted weeks, then months, of testing and analysis. In the end, NASA managers determined that the risks were too high to bring the spacecraft down remotely without its crew. As a result, NASA decided to keep Wilmore and Williams aboard the ISS until they could return with astronauts Hague and Gorbunov at the end of the Crew-9 expedition.
Initially, NASA planned to bring all four astronauts back to Earth in February. However, the Crew Dragon was not ready for launch, and sources indicated that additional time was needed to complete the necessary preparations.
