Trump, Musk accuse Biden administration of delaying NASA astronauts’ return

U.S. President Donald Trump and CEO of Tesla Motors Elon Musk have alleged that former U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration deliberately delayed the return of two NASA astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) for political reasons.

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner in June 2024 for an eight-day mission, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

However, technical faults in the capsule prevented their return. NASA then turned to Musk’s SpaceX, which docked a Crew Dragon capsule at the ISS in September 2024, but the return has been repeatedly postponed.

Musk criticized the delays as "ridiculous," while Trump claimed Biden’s administration was reluctant to approve SpaceX’s return mission.

Despite these claims, Williams and Wilmore have denied feeling abandoned. “It was a little bit longer stay than we had expected,” Williams said. Wilmore added, “We don’t feel abandoned, stuck, or stranded.”

NASA maintains that astronaut safety is its priority and plans to bring the astronauts home after a new SpaceX crew arrives in March.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have spent the past eight months in space due to technical issues with their spacecraft, are finally expected to return home next month.

In an interview with CNN, Williams and Wilmore confirmed that NASA’s Crew-10 mission is set to lift off from Earth on March 12 and bring them back on March 19.

The Crew-10 mission will carry NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, to the International Space Station (ISS) for a six-month stay.

By Aghakazim Guliyev