Musk, Trump say Biden to blame for astronauts stuck in space
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Elon Musk's SpaceX has been hired to bring astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore home.
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Elon Musk speaks during an event in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump at the White House, on February 11, 2025. (AP)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk believes that two NASA astronauts presently trapped in space were placed there "for political purposes" by Joe Biden's administration without explaining what benefit they believed the former president was pursuing by leaving the astronauts stuck in space.
Musk made the statement during a joint Fox News interview with Donald Trump hosted by Sean Hannity.
The billionaire's company, SpaceX, has been hired to bring Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore home.
As part of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, agency astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams flew aboard Starliner to the station in June and were scheduled for an eight-day trip, which soon turned into months of waiting amid the dysfunction of the craft's thrusters as it first tried docking.
Both astronauts have since taken part in space maintenance and have reportedly recorded over 100 hours of work across 42 different projects.
Musk stated that rescue attempts would be conducted in less than a month.
NASA's history of dismissing crew safety
In June, a livestream showed a crew member on the ISS in "extreme medical distress" during a medical drill.
The incident gained the attention of social media users and prompted alarmed responses, forcing the agency to deny the emergency in a post on X, claiming, "Audio was inadvertently misrouted from an ongoing simulation where crew members and ground teams train for various scenarios in space."
NASA's live stream was interrupted, displaying a message relaying that the video would continue when "connection is reestablished." Shortly after, an unnamed flight surgeon working at the SpaceX mission control center in California appeared to be issuing a warning to others on board the ISS regarding a serious incident involving a commander experiencing decompression sickness.
The audio said, "So if we could get the commander back in his suit, get it sealed … for suited hyperbaric treatment … Prior to sealing, closing the visor and pressurizing the suit, I would like you to check his pulse one more time."
She also expressed her concerns regarding her prognosis but mentioned that it was "tenuous".
Social media users and popular space accounts, which had been watching the live stream were quick to raise concerns and go as far as to call it "odd and disturbing." A space editor at tech publication Ars Technica, Eric Berger, described the live stream as scary.
