Starliner astronauts refuse to play in Trump, Musk’s bet on politicization of a “rescue” mission

The Starliner saga is approaching with the planned return of the crew later this month, but the dispute over the problem mission is still ongoing. Following Donald Trump’s statements, who fiercely claim that Starliner’s crew was abandoned by the previous administration, the two astronauts abstained from the Da-Ivan of their president and turning the Botched mission into a political instrument.

During the live broadcast of the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, NASA astronaut Becch Wilmore rejected Trump’s latest attempts and his friend Elon Musk to politicize Starliner’s mission. “The words they said well are politics. I want to say it’s part of life, “Wilmore told reporters. “From my point of view, politics did not play at all.”

NASA Wilmore and Suni Williams astronauts Started on the ISS aboard Boeing CST-100 Starliner On June 5, 2024, the mission was originally cut for eight days in space but Problems with pushing spacecraft NASA forced Return an empty Starliner back from the ISSConsidering it is dangerous to transport the crew to the ground. Instead, Williams and Wilmore are ready to go on board the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft later this month.

Shortly after he took office, Trump decided to get involved and claim to work on A rescue mission for the two astronautsS Trump has announced that he has asked the founder and CEO of Spacex Musk to “go to take the 2 bold astronauts who have been practically abandoned in space by the Biden administration,” he wrote The truth is social. Of course, the two astronauts were not abandoned, nor did they need an accelerated rescue mission.

By this point, NASA had already agreed to a return plan for Williams and Wilmore. In September 2024, NASA launched its Crew-9 mission with two astronauts instead of four. The two empty places were reserved for Williams and Wilmore, which in February had to return with the astronauts of the crew-9. However, the plan faced some problems as the technical problems slowed down the start of the NASA Spacex Crew-10 mission, postponing the crew. This meant that Crew-9, along with Williams and Wilmore, would not be able to leave the ISS until the CREW-10 is at the space station sometime in April.

After Trump’s meaningless rent, NASA ended with the SpaceX spacecraft switching to return the two Starliner astronauts later this month. This move was probably influenced by Trump’s pressure, but anyway, change only shortens the time of astronauts in space by about two weeks.

In an interview with Fox News presenter Sean Haniti, aired last month, Trump and Musk doubled on their fake claimsS Musk told Haniti that Spacex “accelerates the return of astronauts” who were “left there for political reasons.”

Musk also said, without presenting any evidence that he had offered the Biden Plan administration to return the two Starliner Astronauts Astronauts earlier without waiting for Crew-9 mission to return from the ISS. During the recent Presser aboard the ISS Wilmore, Musk’s claim, admitting that “there is” no information about this “, such as” what is offered, what is not offered, to whom this process went. This is information we just don’t have. “

“I believe him,” Wilmore added during a live show. “I don’t know all these details and I don’t think any of us can give you the answer.”

Astronauts downplayed their prolonged stay on the ISS due to the defective spacecraft, claiming that all this was part of the work. “We went ready to stay long, even though we planned to stay short,” Wilmore said. “This is what we do in the human space flight. This is why your country’s space flight program is to plan unknown, unexpected unforeseen situations. And we did this. “

On the other hand, Williams acknowledged that the extra months in space had a fee for people on Earth. “I think the most difficult part is that people on Earth do not know exactly when we are returning … All this uncertainty, in my opinion, is probably the most difficult part,” Williams told reporters on Tuesday.

The first test flight of the Starliner crew to the ISS has suffered some unlucky events since its launch, and the most disputes surrounding the mission is a lot for the brand.