Tech billionaire Elon Musk clashed with European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen after Musk insinuated that the two astronauts who had been stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) since June were held for "political reasons."
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have been on the International Space Station (ISS) for the first crewed mission of the Boeing Starliner for the past eight months, well beyond the initially estimated ten days.
NASA delayed their return to Earth until mid-March 2025 when technical difficulties with the reusable aircraft's service module caused concern.
In a pre-taped Fox News interview with Musk and Republican President Donald Trump, Musk claimed, “They were left up there for political reasons,” suggesting that former Democratic President Joe Biden was responsible for keeping Williams and Wilmore adrift for months.
Here's a clip from the Fox interview with Sean Hannity.
Mogensen, an ISS commander who became the first Dane to fly in space as part of the ESA's Iriss program, responded to Musk's false accusation on X (formerly Twitter), writing:
“What a lie. And from someone who complains about lack of honesty from the mainstream media.”
Unable to handle being called out on his hypocrisy about the media, Musk disparaged Mogensen with an ableist slur.
The founder and CEO of SpaceX continued railing into Mogensen, saying:
“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.”
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Social media users were dumbfounded over Musk's demeaning of the venerated spaceflight engineer.
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Mogensen, also known as the "Space Viking," didn't stoop to Musk's level with the name-calling in his next response.
He first recognized Musk's achievements, saying he's "long admired" him in his tech enterprises.
“You know as well as I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since last September," Mogensen said of NASA's planned mission to retrieve the two astronauts back on terra firma with two current space station crew members.
He continued:
“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.”
The ISS problems that had NASA concerned for the safety of Williams and Wilmore included helium leaks in the propulsion system and the failure of five thrusters, according to the Cape Cod Times.
Space station missions can last anywhere from six months to even a full year.
Despite concerns for the well-being of the astronauts floating around space, Dr. Simeon Barber, from the Open University, told BBC News:
"I'm sure that they are already disappointed that they were going to miss Christmas back home with the folks."
"But this is only another two months on an already quite long mission, and I'm sure if you ask them, I'm sure they would tell you that the space station is where they love to be."
This wasn't the first time Musk exploited the astronauts' situation to make a political statement.
A week after Trump's inauguration festivities where Musk controversially gave the Nazi salute during a speech, Musk stated that Trump enlisted SpaceX in bringing the astronauts home "as soon as possible," and that his company would do so.
He added:
"Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long."
After Musk made his comments on Fox News, Trump chimed in and claimed without evidence, “They didn’t have the go-ahead with Biden. He was going to leave them in space."
"I think he was going to leave them in space," Trump said, adding, "He didn’t want the publicity. Can you believe it?”
After conservatives have been spinning the story about a Democratic agenda of leaving the astronauts "stranded," CNN's Anderson Cooper asked Williams and Wilmore to confirm how they felt about the sensationalized perception.
Wilmore responded from the ISS, saying:
"We don't feel abandoned. We don't feel stuck. We don't feel stranded."
"I understand why others may think that. We come prepared. We come committed. That is what your human spaceflight program is."
He continued:
"It prepares for any and all contingencies that we all conceive of, and we prepare for those."
Wilmore asked viewers to regard them as being "prepared and committed" instead of buying into the political narrative. "Help us change the rhetoric. Help us change the narrative," insisted Wilmore.
In a previous interview with CBS News, Williams responded to Trump's claim, saying:
“I don’t think those words are quite accurate…We are part of something bigger than ourselves, we are part of the International Space Station."
"So no, we don’t feel abandoned, we feel like we are part of the team and that’s a huge honor.”
Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield weighed in on the discussion and defended the astronauts' statements by sharing the CNN clip, stating:
“Suni and Butch have never been ‘stranded’ in space. They’re prepared and committed to the mission, like all professional astronauts."
"Suni’s Space Station commander, they’re doing spacewalks, working hard on behalf of NASA and all partners, having the time of their lives.”
Williams and Wilmore have been busying themselves with various scientific experiments and maintenance tasks aboard the ISS while periodically sharing their space experiences with viewers back home.
In January 2025, Williams spoke with students at her alma mater, Needham High School, to share what it was like to spend months floating around in space, saying she's been "trying to remember what it's like to walk."
When she and Wilmore were apprised of their return trip getting delayed, she told the students:
"It was a little bit of a shock, actually."
"We knew that it would be probably a month or so, honestly. But the extended stay was just a little bit different."
With their return trip having been delayed multiple times after reaching the orbital outpost, reports are saying they are now scheduled to return on March 19, two weeks ahead of the scheduled date in early April.
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