Elon Musk visited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the White House in Washington, DC, USA on February 13, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Elon Musk In a recent interview, Musk suggested that two NASA astronauts remain at the International Space Station “for political reasons.”
Public quarrel on X is a response to Musk’s remarks in a joint interview with the president on Tuesday Donald Trump About Fox News. The two were asked about NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been on the space station for the past eight months, Boeing The spacecraft had problems with its first crew test flight.
“They were left there for political reasons,” Musk said. The Biden administration chose to leave astronauts in space longer than necessary.
Mogensen became the first Danish citizen to fly in space in 2015, targeting Musk’s unsupported claims, release: “What a lie. From someone who complains about the lack of honesty in the mainstream media.”
Things quickly turned ugly, Musk called Mogensen “idiot” and used derogatory terms.
“SpaceX might have brought them back a few months ago,” Musk wrote. “I offered this directly to the Biden administration, and they refused. The return was withdrawn for political reasons. Idiot.”
Thirteen minutes later, Mogensen himself flew to the space station in SpaceX Rocket and capsules and flew from the space station to the space station, saying he “admired” Musk’s achievements on SpaceX.
“You know as much as I do, Butch and Suni are returning with Crew 9, just like the plans since September last year,” He said on Xreferring to NASA’s plan to return Willmore and Williams to Earth with two current space station staff. “Even now, you haven’t sent a rescue ship to take them home. They’re returning on the Dragon Capsules on the International Space Station since September last year.”
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore, Weles and Suni Williams put out Boeing’s Starliner in the hatch to connect it to the International Space Station
NASA
Mogensen served as commander of the space station from September 2023 to March 2024, his recent stay at Orbiting Outpost.
Not really White House NASA also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who commanded the space station in 2013, also debated the dispute, reposting his first comment on X on February 14.
“Suni and Butch have never been trapped in space,” Hadfield wrote. “Like all professional astronauts, they are ready and committed to the mission. Suni’s space station commander, they are doing spacewalks, representing NASA and all My partner worked hard and spent his whole life.”
The quarrel was because Musk’s role as one of Trump’s top political advisers He likes to spread false and misleading information. Recently, Musk has spread Various misleading claims about fraud and spending The entire U.S. government.
Wilmore and Williams boarded the International Space Station on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in June 2024, intending to spend about a week of test flights there.
However, the capsule encountered several problems, forcing astronauts to stay on the space station for longer than planned. Finally, NASA chose Bring Starliner back to Earth in September No one boarded.
NASA decision under the Biden administration Call SpaceX to bring Wilmore and Williams back Go to the earth. Their flight home has been scheduled this month, but then Postponed to late March without advance. NASA said the reason was to “complete processing” on the new SpaceX spacecraft, which will send four new crew members to the space station.
The flight is expected to be called the CREW-10 and will bring NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Russian astronaut Kirill Peskov and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi brought to the space station.
Once arrived, Wilmore and Williams, along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian astronaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, will leave the station with a separate dragon capsule.
New and departing crews often overlap during handovers, during which time astronauts can exchange information about ongoing experiments, maintenance projects and other protocols.
Musk said on Thursday The space station should be removed from orbit, and his suggestion is to be carried out within two years, rather than NASA’s plan to detach the facility by 2030.
“It has achieved its purpose. There is little incremental practicality,” he wrote. “Let’s go to Mars.”
