Two NASA officials shed light on the true reasons behind the delayed return of stranded astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, contradicting Elon Musk’s claims of political interference.
Two NASA officials have weighed in on the public dispute over when and how to bring home Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been on the International Space Station since June.
Stranded space travelers face extreme conditions, including exposure to radiation, temperature fluctuations, and lack of oxygen.
According to NASA, a person can survive for only '3-14 days' without food, depending on factors like physical activity and climate.
In space, dehydration occurs rapidly due to humidity levels as low as 1%.
Stranded travelers must also contend with isolation, psychological strain, and equipment failure.
Photograph: Kirk Sides/Getty Images
The Background of the Dispute
The fate of the two astronauts has become a political issue after President Donald Trump and SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the astronauts’ return was held up by the Biden White House. In February, Trump and Musk appeared on FOX News, where they discussed Wilmore and Williams.
‘At the president’s request, or instruction, we are accelerating the return of the astronauts, which was postponed to a ridiculous degree,’ Musk said.
‘They got left in space,’ Trump added.
‘They were left up there for political reasons, which is not good,’ Musk concluded.
What Really Happened
NASA has not directly answered questions about this over the past month. However, two key NASA officials, Ken Bowersox and Steve Stich, shed some light on what really happened during a media teleconference.
Musk claims he made an offer to bring Wilmore and Williams home from the International Space Station using a Crew Dragon vehicle, but was refused by the Biden administration for ‘political’ reasons. However, according to NASA officials, there is no evidence that Musk’s offer was ever made or declined.
Elon Musk has made numerous claims throughout his career, some of which have been accurate and others that have sparked controversy.
In 2020, he claimed that Neuralink, his neurotechnology company, would enable humans to merge with AI by the end of the decade.
He also stated that SpaceX's Starship would be capable of transporting people to Mars within the next few years.
Additionally, Musk has made claims about the potential for Tesla's Autopilot technology to become fully autonomous in the near future.
While some of these claims have been met with skepticism, they reflect Musk's vision for a futuristic and technologically advanced world.
‘We ruled them out pretty quickly just based on how much money we’ve got in our budget, and the importance of keeping crews on the International Space Station,’ Bowersox said.
The decision to delay Wilmore and Williams’ return was made due to a battery issue with a new Dragon spacecraft that was going to be used to fly Crew 10 into orbit. NASA then announced that the return of the crew was delayed into late March or early April, but later brought forward the launch date to March 12.
The decision to accelerate Wilmore and Williams’ return was not driven by political pressure, according to Stich. ‘It really was driven by a lot of other factors, and we were looking at this before some of those statements were made by the President and Mr. Musk,_ he said.
The Verdict
While Elon Musk‘s claims about the Biden administration refusing his offer to bring Wilmore and Williams home may have sparked controversy, it appears that NASA officials had already made a decision based on technical considerations rather than politics. The return of the two astronauts is now expected to happen as part of the Crew 9 mission later this month.
NASA has been a significant partner for SpaceX, the private aerospace manufacturer founded by Elon Musk.
The two entities have collaborated on several projects, including the Commercial Crew Program and the Artemis mission to return humans to the lunar surface.
However, there have also been instances of competition between the two, particularly in the development of reusable rockets.
In 2015, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.89 billion contract for 12 crew missions to the International Space Station.
Meanwhile, NASA's own 'Space Launch System (SLS)' and 'Orion spacecraft' are being developed to support deep space exploration.
