Billionaire Elon Musk has accused the former Biden-led administration of leaving two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, stuck in International Space Station and promised to bring them back to Earth “within about four weeks.”
Musk appeared in a joint interview with President Donald Trump and Sean Hannity on Fox News. He disclosed that they “are accelerating the return of the astronauts” at Trump's request.
The SpaceX CEO accused the former government of leaving them up there “for political reasons”. He blasted Biden, saying that he intended to abandon them in space.
He further boasted that SpaceX has successfully brought back people from the space station numerous times in the past.
Musk's SpaceX attempted to save the two in September with launch of Crew Dragon Capsule. The space station successfully reached, but it had no authority to bring Williams and Wilmore to Earth.
The duo, which has spent 258 days aboard the space station, was expected to stay onboard the space station for eight days. They got stranded following a technical issue with their Boeing Starliner capsule.
Also Read: Elon Musk quips ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ is real as President Donald says ‘they’re trying to drive us apart’
NASA astronauts dismiss Musk and Trump's claims
Meanwhile, the astronauts rejected Musk and Trump's assertion that they were “abandoned” in orbit.
In a CNN interview with anchor Anderson Cooper on Thursday, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore responded to similar comments that Trump made last month. When asked if they “feel you've been abandoned,” Wilmore said, “We don't feel abandoned, we don't feel stuck, we don't feel stranded.”
“I understand why others may think that,” he added, stressing that they came “prepared and committed.”
Last week, NASA announced that Wilmore and Williams might return home sooner than anticipated due to the agency's decision to modify the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that would be used to launch the Crew-10 mission. The launch date of the mission has been rescheduled to March 12 “pending mission readiness,” according to a mission blog update from NASA.
Wilmore informed CNN on Thursday that he and Williams are expected to head back to Earth with the Crew-9 crew as early as March 19, if everything goes according to plan.