Billionaire and tech titan Elon Musk shared his congratulations to SpaceX and NASA following the rescue of two astronauts stranded on the Worldwide House Station for roughly the previous 9 months.
“Thanks to the excellent work of the SpaceX team working with NASA, the astronauts are now safely home. And so congratulations to the SpaceX NASA teams on excellent work,” Musk stated throughout an unique interview on “Hannity” Tuesday.
The SpaceX founder and face of the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) additionally provided a “huge note of appreciation” to President Donald Trump “for prioritizing and expediting the return.”
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams had been on the Worldwide House Station since June 2024.
Their mission was solely scheduled to final one week after the launch of Boeing’s first astronaut flight.
Nevertheless, after the spacecraft encountered technical points, and NASA decided it unsafe for it to reach again to Earth with the astronauts on board, Wilmore and Williams remained caught on the Worldwide House Station for months.
Wilmore, Williams, Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov made their return to Earth on Tuesday, with a splashdown off the coast of Florida simply earlier than 6 p.m. ET.
Wilmore and Williams’ return turned a political situation for the Trump administration, with Musk beforehand telling Fox Information host Sean Hannity on Feb. 18 that Biden left the astronauts in area for “political reasons.”
Shortly after taking workplace, Trump tasked Musk with bringing house the 2 astronauts, who he stated had been “abandoned” by the Biden administration.
Trump additionally blasted former President Joe Biden for not appearing sooner.
“I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to ‘go get’ the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration. They have been waiting for many months on @Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon!!!” posted Trump on the time.
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In a post-landing information convention with SpaceX and NASA officers on Tuesday, Deputy Affiliate Administrator, NASA House Operations Mission Directorate Joel Montalbano was requested about Trump and Musk’s claims that the Biden administration didn’t need to deliver the Starliner crew again for political causes.
“Yeah, so I wasn’t involved in any conversations with the previous administration,” Montalbano stated. “It was clear we had a request from the current administration, and the results you saw are what we saw today with the landing of Crew-9.”
Hannity pressed Musk on the politics behind the astronauts’ delayed return, and Musk set the report straight on his communications with the earlier Biden administration.
“We definitely offered to return the astronauts earlier. There’s no question about that,” Musk stated.
“The astronauts were only supposed to be there for eight days, and they’ve been there for almost ten months. So, obviously, that doesn’t make any sense. SpaceX could have brought the astronauts back after a few months at most, and we made that offer to the Biden administration. It was rejected for political reasons, and that’s just a fact.”
