Astronauts push back on Trump claim Biden abandoned them on space station
NASA astronauts pushed back during an interview on President Trump’s claim last month that former President Biden and his administration abandoned them on the International Space Station (ISS).
Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore were asked Thursday night on CNN if they feel abandoned, an assertion they refuted.
“We don’t feel abandoned. We don’t feel stuck. We don’t feel stranded. I understand why others may think that. We come prepared. We come committed,” Wilmore, speaking from the space station, told CNN host Anderson Cooper.
“That is what your human spaceflight program is. It prepares for any and all contingencies that we can conceive of, and we prepare for those,” he added. “So if you’ll help us change the rhetoric, help us change the narrative, let’s change it to ‘prepared and committed.’ That’s what we prefer.”
The pair took off into space in June last year on Boeing’s Starliner program that throughout the process faced numerous delays with helium leaks and thruster failures. When the capsule attempted to dock at the station, five of the thrusters malfunctioned.
Boeing said the Starliner was safe to bring back Wilmore and Williams, but NASA decided in August last year that the pair will come back in February this year on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.
Late last month, tech billionaire Elon Musk, wrote on the social platform X that Trump asked Space X, which Musk owns, to bring back the two astronauts “stranded on the” space station.
“Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long,” Musk wrote.
Hours later, Trump made a similar claim on Truth Social, saying the “brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration.”
“They have been waiting for many months on @Space Station,” Trump wrote on Jan. 28. “Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon!!!”
NASA said in December that Williams and Wilmore's return with Crew-10 is set for March 12.
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