President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have blamed the Biden administration for delaying the return of astronauts Williams and Wilmore because of politics. Now, the astronauts have shared their thoughts on the matter.
US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have blamed Joe Biden government for purposely delaying the return of astronauts Sunita ‘Suny’ Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore to Earth. The astronauts have been stuck in space for more than eight months.
A new video of the astronauts talking has gone viral. In the video, Wilmore says that Elon Musk was “absolutely right.” But then, he added something that caused more confusion. He mentioned that they didn’t know about any such offer.
In the viral video Wilmore is saying that”I can only say that what Mr Musk says is absolutely factual. We have no information on that, though… What was offered, what was not, who was offered to, how the processes went… that’s information that we simply don’t have. So, I believe him. I don’t know all those details and I don’t think any of us can give you the answer that you are looking for,”
Have a look at the video:
NEW: Astronaut says Elon Musk is “absolutely factual” after a WaPo reporter asked him about how Musk said his rescue efforts were denied for political reasons.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 6, 2025
Musk was condemned by the media for making the comment but it appears the astronauts agree.
Reporter: “Elon Musk has… pic.twitter.com/Qeb8sF8gnT
Both the astronauts and a former NASA leader who were part of the interview said they didn’t know anything about SpaceX offering to bring them back to Earth last year.
Last month, Musk told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he personally offered the Biden administration to bring the astronauts home early. He said the offer was turned down because of political reasons.
A Mission That Went Longer Than Planned
Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams arrived at the ISS on June 6, 2023, in Boeing’s Starliner capsule. They were only supposed to stay for about a week. However, Starliner had some problems, like helium leaks and issues with its thrusters. Because of this, NASA decided to keep them on the station longer while engineers checked the spacecraft.
In the end, NASA decided Starliner wasn’t safe for the trip back. So, the astronauts will now return in SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. After staying longer than planned, Wilmore and Williams are set to come back on March 19, almost nine months after they first launched.
Elon Musk’s ‘Proposal’
Elon Musk and Donald Trump have said that NASA’s delay in bringing the astronauts back was because of politics. Last month, Musk told Fox News host Sean Hannity that SpaceX could have brought the crew home much earlier, but the Biden administration turned down his offer to help.
The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 28, 2025
Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.
‘spaceX could have brought them back several months ago. I offered this directly to the Biden administration and they refused’, Musk wrote in a social media post.
Earlier, Wilmore said that politics didn’t affect the crew’s longer stay in space. He said, “I can tell you right from the start, we all have a lot of respect for Mr. Musk and of course, for our president, Donald Trump.” He added, “They’ve talked about politics, but we understand that’s part of life. We believe in the political system we have and support it 100%.” Wilmore also said, “From my point of view, politics didn’t affect this. We were ready to stay longer, even though we planned to stay for a short time. That’s what we do in space missions.”
In another post on X, Musk said the space station should be brought down sooner: “It’s time to start planning to bring the @Space_Station down. It has done its job. There’s not much left to do with it. Let’s go to Mars.” Williams didn’t agree, saying, “We’re actually doing great right now.”
