An online argument broke out between a Danish astronaut and Elon Musk, the chairman of the DOGE and founder of SpaceX. The astronaut was upset about something Musk said about an offer he made to the Biden administration that was turned down for “political reasons.”
Musk and Andreas Mogensen, a European astronaut, hit each other online after Musk said something in a joint interview with President Trump that was taped ahead of time and aired on Fox News on Tuesday. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have been on the space station for eight months after their Boeing spacecraft had problems on its first crewed test flight. The two men were asked about them.
Musk said, “They were left up there for political reasons,” which means he thinks the Biden administration left them there longer than they needed to be.
In 2015, Mogensen was the first person from Denmark to fly in space. He responded to Musk’s claim by writing, “What a lie.” This is coming from someone who says the mainstream media isn’t honest.
Musk wouldn’t stand for that, though.
He wrote, “SpaceX could have brought them back months ago.” “I GAVE THIS TO THE Biden administration DIRECTLY, BUT THEY REFUSED IT.” Return WAS pushed back because of politics. “Stupid.”
Mogensen replied 13 minutes later, saying he has “long admired” Musk’s accomplishments. He flew to and from the space station on a SpaceX rocket and capsule.
As planned since September, he told X, “You know as well as I do that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9.” He was talking about NASA’s plan to bring Wilmore and Williams back to Earth with two current space station crew members. “Even now, you’re not sending a ship to save them and bring them home.” They are coming back on the Dragon capsule, which has been on the ISS since September of last year.
NASA said that its “main goal is to safely carry out our crew rotation missions and work on the International Space Station for the benefit of all people and for future long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.”
Chris Hadfield, a retired Canadian astronaut who ran the space station from 2013 to 2016, then wrote on Twitter, “Suni and Butch have never been “stranded” in space.” Like all professional astronauts, they are ready for the mission and dedicated to it. Suni is in charge of the space station, and they’re having the time of their lives doing spacewalks and working hard for NASA and all of their partners.
But the statements that contradict Musk don’t match up with what was said before about what happened during Biden’s presidency.
NBC News said that Wilmore and Williams planned to spend about a week on the International Space Station as part of the test flight. They took off in June on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
But there were problems with the capsule, so the astronauts had to stay at the space station longer than planned. NASA chose to send the Starliner back to Earth in September, but there were no people on board.
The “stranded NASA astronauts” told the space agency they “needed to come back” in what DailyMail.com called a “desperate plea” just a week ago.
The Boeing Starliner took Williams and Wilmore to the ISS on June 5, 2024, with plans to stay for eight days.
But the capsule had problems from the time it was launched until June 6, when it docked with the ISS.
NASA finally decided that Starliner wasn’t safe enough to bring people back to Earth after weeks of tests. In September, the spacecraft was sent back empty.
The AP wrote three weeks ago that “NASA’s two stuck astronauts take their first spacewalk together.”
In a strange twist, next month a SpaceX ship called the Dragon will pick up the current ISS crew and bring them back to Earth.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
