Sunita Williams’ return: NASA astronauts deny ’politics’, say ’what Elon Musk says is absolutely factual but…’

Elon Musk reiterated his claim on Thursday that his company SpaceX “could have sent up another Dragon and brought” back the astronauts “stuck in space” home 6 months ago. But, he said, “the Biden White House [not NASA] refused to allow it.”

Musk said in a post on X that US President Donald Trump “asked to bring them back as soon as possible, and we are doing so.”

The SpaceX owner’s comments came after NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore reacted to Elon Musk’s claim about bringing “stranded astronauts” back to Earth early.

“…what Mr. Musk says is absolutely factual,” Butch said, adding that he didn’t have details of Musk’s “offer”.

During a press conference on March 5, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore and Nick Hague were asked: “Elon musk said he offered to bring [astronauts] back earlier and he was denied. Is that true?”

Butch replied, “I can only say that Mr. Musk, what he says is absolutely factual. We have no information on that though whatsoever what was offered, what was not offered, who it was offered to…that information we simply don’t have. I believe him. I don’t know all those details.”

Politics over ‘stranded’ astronauts’ return

Butch Wilmore denied claims that politics influenced the “decision around the timing of their return from space” and said that “politics is not playing into this at all.”

“We came up prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short. That’s what we do in human space flight. That’s what your nation’s human space flight program is all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that,” Butch Wilmore said on March 4.

On Elon Musk’s and Trump’s comments that Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore were “left up” at International Space Station (ISS) for “political reasons,” Butch said, “Obviously, we’ve heard some of these different things that have been 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,” Butch said.

He added, “We appreciated them, we appreciate all of that that do for us…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%.”

“We know what we have lived up here, we know the ins and outs and the specifics that they might not be privy to and I am sure that they have some issues that they are dealing with the information that we are not privy to,” Butch said.

What did Trump and Musk claim?

In January, Donald Trump said he asked Elon Musk and SpaceX to “go get” the two NASA astronauts, who have been “abandoned in space” on the International Space Station, as soon as possible.

“I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to “go get” the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration. They have been waiting for many months on @Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon!!!,” Donald Trump posted on Truth Social.

Elon Musk shared a screenshot of Donald Trump’s post and reacted with a 🫡 (saluting face emoji). Later, he posted, “The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so. Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.”

Two ‘stranded’ astronauts

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore ended up spending more than seven months in space even thought their mission was supposed to last just eight days.

Their delayed returned sparked speculations that they were “stuck” or “stranded” in space. However, the two astronauts and NASA have clarified time and again that they are Butch and Sunita are not “stranded” or “stuck” but happy in space.

Wilmore earlier told CNN in an interview, “We don’t feel abandoned. We don’t feel stuck. We don’t feel stranded. I understand why others may think that.”

It is expected that the two astronauts will return to Earth around March 19.