Elon Musk has received right into a heated row with a Danish astronaut who criticised the tech billionaire’s declare that former president Joe Biden deliberately deserted two American astronauts aboard the Worldwide Area Station.
Andreas “Andy” Mogensen had on Thursday shared on X a Fox Information clip that includes Musk and his boss, US President Donald Trump, by which Musk claimed Nasa’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams had been left stranded on the orbital outpost for “political causes” by Biden, and that the brand new administration was now coming to the rescue.
“What a lie. And from somebody who complains about lack of honesty from the mainstream media,” wrote the 48-year-old European Area Company astronaut, who has flown to the ISS twice, together with onboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule throughout a 2023 mission.
Musk responded by calling Mogensen “absolutely retarded,” including that “SpaceX may have introduced them again a number of months in the past” and that he had made such a suggestion to the Biden administration. Musk didn’t elaborate on what that supply entailed.
Wilmore and Williams flew to the ISS in June onboard a Boeing Starliner for what was meant to be an eight-day check mission to certify the brand new spaceship.
However thruster issues led Nasa to determine that Starliner ought to return with out its crew, and the company tasked SpaceX with bringing the veteran astronauts house.
Nasa then introduced the pair would return on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission’s spaceship, which launched in September with a crew of two as an alternative of 4 to be able to accommodate them.
The voyage house was initially scheduled for February however later shifted to March as a consequence of delays by SpaceX in making ready the spacecraft for Crew-10, whose crew will change Crew-9’s.
If there was an alternate rescue plan that might have been executed sooner, Musk has not revealed it.
“Elon, I’ve lengthy admired you and what you could have completed, particularly at SpaceX and Tesla,” Mogensen replied to Musk’s missive.
“ in addition to I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since final September. Even now, you aren’t sending up a rescue ship to carry them house. They’re returning on the Dragon capsule that has been on ISS since final September.”
Supply hyperlink
