Musk and Trump repeat inaccurate claims about Starliner astronauts

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk reiterated claims in a televised interview that NASA astronauts were “abandoned” on the International Space Station for political reasons, an allegation that appears unsupported by evidence.

In a joint interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity broadcast Feb. 18, Hannity noted plans by Musk’s company “to help rescue next month two astronauts that I think were abandoned” on the ISS. That is a reference to NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been on the ISS since June on the flawed Crew Flight Test mission of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner.

Musk announced on social media Jan. 28 that he had been asked by President Trump to bring the two back “as soon as possible,” adding that it was “terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.” Trump confirmed that in his own social media post the same day, claiming that that the astronauts had been “virtually abandoned” by the previous administration.

Both Musk and Trump reaffirmed those claims in the interview. “At the president’s request, or instruction, we are accelerating the return of the astronauts which was postponed, kind of to a ridiculous degree,” Musk said. “They were left up there for political reasons, which is not good.”

“They didn’t have the go-ahead with Biden,” Trump said. “He was going to leave them in space. I think he was going to leave them in space … He didn’t want the publicity.”

The public accounting of the events, from NASA and an independent safety panel, differs from what Musk and Trump described in the interview. NASA announced Aug. 24 that it would return the Starliner spacecraft that delivered Williams and Wilmore to the station without a crew. Agency officials said at the briefing there remained too much uncertainty about the performance of thrusters, several of which failed on the spacecraft’s approach to the station in June, to give them confidence that the spacecraft could return to Earth safely.

The agency said it would fly the next regularly scheduled crew rotation mission, Crew-9, in September with only two people rather than previously planned four. That would free up two seats that would be used for Williams and Wilmore to return to Earth at the end of the Crew-9 mission, then planned for February.

The agency’s leadership said at the time that its decision to leave the astronauts on the station an additional six months was not influenced by the White House. “I can tell you unequivocally, from a personal standpoint, that politics has not played any part in this decision,” then-NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at that Aug. 24 briefing. “It absolutely has nothing to do with it.” Other industry sources said they were also unaware of any political influence on that decision.

NASA’s independent safety panel, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Board, supported the agency’s move to bring back Starliner uncrewed. It noted in its 2024 annual report, released Feb. 5, that an additional thruster on Starliner malfunctioned during the spacecraft’s return. That thruster was a different design from those that failed earlier in the mission, but the board saw it as evidence that NASA made the correct decision in having Starliner return without astronauts on board.

“Had the crew been aboard, this would have significantly increased the risk during reentry, confirming the wisdom of the decision,” the panel stated in its report. Keeping Williams and Wilmore on the station through the Crew-9 mission “ensured that the crew would return safely while minimizing the risk associated with the Starliner’s technical issues.”

NASA has repeatedly resisted claims that Williams and Wilmore were “stuck” or “stranded” on the station, or abandoned there as Trump later stated, noting that they could leave at any time in an emergency using the Crew Dragon docked to the station. The astronauts themselves have also said in recent interviews that they do not feel stranded on the ISS.

“We don’t feel abandoned,” Wilmore said in an interview with CNN Feb. 13. “We don’t feel stranded. I understand why others may think that. We come prepared. We come committed.”

He asked to “change the narrative” about their extended stay on the ISS. “Let’s change that to prepared and committed.”

Musk said in the interview that SpaceX is “accelerating the return” of Wilmore and Williams. NASA announced Feb. 11 that it has rescheduled the launch of the next Crew Dragon mission, Crew-10, to no earlier than March 12, rather than late March as previously planned.

However, Crew-10 was originally scheduled to launch in February. NASA stated in December that it was postponing the launch to late March because of delays in the completion of a new Crew Dragon that Crew-10 was to use. NASA said Feb. 11 it would instead use an existing Crew Dragon spacecraft for the mission. There had reportedly been concerns the new Crew Dragon would not be ready in time for even a late March launch.

Conflicts of interest

During the Fox News interview, Musk and Trump briefly talked about SpaceX’s Starlink broadband service and its Starship vehicle, with Trump marveling at the ability to catch the Super Heavy booster on its return to the launch site.

Those comments also included what might be considered criticism of NASA’s Space Launch System. “He said, ‘You know, you can’t really have a rocket program if you’re going to dump a billion dollars into the ocean every time you fly.  You have to save it,’” Trump said, referring to Musk. SLS is the only current launch vehicle whose per-launch cost is in the vicinity of a billion dollars, with others costing far less per launch.

Musk’s role as an adviser to Trump and de-facto leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has raised conflict-of-interest concerns, given that DOGE is currently investigating payments at federal agencies like NASA, the Defense Department and the Federal Aviation Administration, all of whom have contracts with or regulate SpaceX.

“I’ll recuse myself if it is a conflict,” Musk said in the interview of any conflicts of interest, but did not state who would determine if there is a conflict and how.

“If there’s a conflict, he won’t be involved,” Trump said.

In a separate discussion with reporters Feb. 18, Trump said that Musk would not be involved in any administration decisions involving space. “I told Elon, any conflicts you can’t have anything to do with that,” he said. “So, anything to do with possibly even space, we won’t let Elon partake in that.”

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