Musk: Biden delayed the return of Starliner’s astronauts “for political reasons”
During a television interview with President Trump, Elon Musk suggested that the reason the two Starliner astronauts have been forced to remain on ISS for months was because of a political decision by the Biden administration last year.
The billionaire SpaceX CEO said his company was “accelerating the return of the astronauts” as per Trump’s instructions. Musk then appeared to take a shot at the Biden administration, saying the move was “postponed kind of to a ridiculous degree,” before the president chimed in saying “they got left in space.”
When Hannity pointed out the astronauts have been on the ISS for almost 300 days instead of the planned 8 days, Trump simply said “Biden,” before Musk claimed they were “left up there for political reasons, which is not good.”
While the decision to return Starliner unmanned certainly had a political component (a desire to avoid a disaster in the final year of Biden’s term), Musk’s claim is greatly exaggerated. Worse, Musk is papering over his own company’s contribution to the delays. Had SpaceX and NASA chosen in December to use an already existing Dragon capsule instead of a brand new capsule to launch the next crew to ISS, the astronauts would be home already. Instead, they decided to get that new capsule ready, requiring an almost two month delay in their return.
When it became obvious last month that even this extra time was insufficient to get the new capsule ready, only then did SpaceX and NASA choose to switch capsules. That switch allowed them to move up the return date by about a week.
In reporting Musk’s words here, our ignorant press has generally left these details out, allowing both Musk and Trump to make it appear as they are saviors for these poor astronauts. This is simply not true. SpaceX is certainly making it possible to bring them home (something Boeing was unable to do), but it also contributed to the delay in doing so.
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During a television interview with President Trump, Elon Musk suggested that the reason the two Starliner astronauts have been forced to remain on ISS for months was because of a political decision by the Biden administration last year.
The billionaire SpaceX CEO said his company was “accelerating the return of the astronauts” as per Trump’s instructions. Musk then appeared to take a shot at the Biden administration, saying the move was “postponed kind of to a ridiculous degree,” before the president chimed in saying “they got left in space.”
When Hannity pointed out the astronauts have been on the ISS for almost 300 days instead of the planned 8 days, Trump simply said “Biden,” before Musk claimed they were “left up there for political reasons, which is not good.”
While the decision to return Starliner unmanned certainly had a political component (a desire to avoid a disaster in the final year of Biden’s term), Musk’s claim is greatly exaggerated. Worse, Musk is papering over his own company’s contribution to the delays. Had SpaceX and NASA chosen in December to use an already existing Dragon capsule instead of a brand new capsule to launch the next crew to ISS, the astronauts would be home already. Instead, they decided to get that new capsule ready, requiring an almost two month delay in their return.
When it became obvious last month that even this extra time was insufficient to get the new capsule ready, only then did SpaceX and NASA choose to switch capsules. That switch allowed them to move up the return date by about a week.
In reporting Musk’s words here, our ignorant press has generally left these details out, allowing both Musk and Trump to make it appear as they are saviors for these poor astronauts. This is simply not true. SpaceX is certainly making it possible to bring them home (something Boeing was unable to do), but it also contributed to the delay in doing so.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Related: Machiavellian / S.O.M. political strategy:
IS TRUMP TRUMPING TRUMP: UKRAINE
“So, is Trump Trumping Trump? Trump wants it over, but I am not certain the quick way is the best way. Let’s see where this all goes but right now, I would not want today to be in Mr. Zelenski’s shoes.”
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/is-trump-trumping-trump-ukraine
Elon probably could have had them both back on earth within a month.
Be patient – the media will struggle mightily and concoct a reason why it was Trump’s and Musk’s fault from the beginning. In the sweepstakes of media hate, Boeing doesn’t quit score as highly as those two.
Why didn’t NASA simply opt to bring Butch and Suni back on a special Crew Dragon?
The most likely reason: It would have cost money they didn’t have, and would have had to go to Congress for a special appropriation during the final months of a presidential election in order to obtain it.
Is it possible that NASA insisted on using the new Crew Dragon?
It remains unclear to me just how that decision played out.
Richard M: We do not know if it was NASA or SpaceX that wanted to use the new capsule. To me it doesn’t matter. By December it was clear that using the new capsule would delay their return. At that time it made sense to make the switch and get them back on schedule in February.
Instead it was decided to approve a two month return delay. This was a mistake, for many reasons.
It does occur to me now that maybe it was Biden himself who pushed for this decision, in order to delay things further, and that might be what Musk is referring to. If so, some clarity would be appropriate.
You can bet that the anti-Trump-Musk-SpaceX talking points are circulating on the modern version of the listserver the media used that was uncovered. What was its name, anyway?
I don’t think Biden even knew what was up there.
Trump, I am told, removed the Moon Rock that had been in the White House, as I recall.
Foust made a big stink about this at SpaceX News.
However–he himself made a boo-boo. The Space Review had an article about a book called “The Pillars of Creation”…. only this time–it was about Webb.
The date of publication is listed as 2004.
Now, there likely was a book on Hubble with a similar title…seeing the Pillars are most closely associated with that space telescope.
Marooned (1969)
Launching the Rescue Mission
https://youtu.be/yD1hbplN4DE?t=105
MAROONED is an interesting film, a curious little Space Race artifact. It had a fascinating premise — an Apollo crew stranded in orbit when their CSM’s main engine and thrusters go bust — and came out right in the heat of the Apollo program (literally just 4 days before the launch of Apollo 12). It had a cast with some serious box office appeal. It ought to have been gangbusters.
But it was hobbled by a lack of cooperation from NASA (though somehow, they actually got hold of an actual “boilerplate” version of the “Block I” Apollo spacecraft in which to film the scenes in Ironman One) and a limited effects budget, which looked clunky in the wake of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the effects aged rather badly. Originally, Frank Capra was attached as director and writer. Funding was a struggle to get, and Capra left, and it’s hard to avoid the sense that Capra’s tight direction and plotting are sorely missed. It ought to be more riveting than it actually turned out to be.
Perhaps for these reasons, it disappeared with hardly a whimper at the box office, and was soon forgotten. But then again, perhaps its failure was evidence of how quickly Apollo was receding from the interest of the American public just a few months after Apollo 11. Its main legacy seems to have been the nightmares it gave Marilyn Lovell.
Perhaps those alive to see it at the time have a better sense of why it bombed.
I grok your point, Bob.
I think the responsibility is ultimately NASA’s, no matter how much input SpaceX had into it. I have to think that….if Bill Nelson had told Elon that the priority was time rather than a space capsule with new car smell, Elon would have done whatever it took to oblige him.
Likewise, for why they did not have SpaceX detail a special Dragon to just bring them back last autumn.
One day, though, I am sure we will find out how it all went down.
Ultimately it’s NASA’s “fault” because it very apparent that they did not have a real contingency plan in place even though there was considerable mission risk.
Somebody probably said in a meeting “Oh, we’ll just get Musk to rescue them, Next?”
Ozzy Osbourne
The Osmosis Album
“Perry Mason” (1995)
https://youtu.be/QapkGK-6G90
4:38
“But if I don’t try to help ’em, they could wind up on the Front Page.
I don’t mind, draw the line, then draw me an arrow,
Feelin’ fine.
Who can we get on the case? We need Perry Mason.
Someone to put them in place.
Calling Perry Mason again, and again and again.”
The Rentals
“Forgotten Astronaut” (2019)
A Song for Michael Collins
Acoustic Version
https://youtu.be/UoFhhx7BQrQ
4:37
They got names like Superheroes,
bigger than The Beatles or I could ever be.
They got all the great one-liners,
written in the schoolbooks for all eternity.
So it’s now Musk/Trump that is to blame for the OTHER 260 days the two were stranded by the biden bunglers? There’s already a capsule at the Space Station but it’s for EMERGENCY USE. It’s an old version so hopefully it works fine when/if it’s needed. You’d think that the Emergency capsule would be cycled out just to make sure it’s operational and a newer one is in place. We don’t know for sure WHO delayed anything, but given the HISTORY of NASA and the FAA, it’s most likely the work of the biden bunglers up to Jan. 20th!
BLSinSC: You are incorrect about “an emergency capsule” at ISS. There is no such thing. The lifeboats for the crew are the capsules they launch on, which stay docked until it is time for the crews to leave.
This way the lifeboats are regularly cycled, as you correctly note is necessary.
Just to clarify, for those who missed it, or hate going on X, Elon provided a little more clarification on this issue today.
Dr Phil Metzger reacted to Elon’s scrum with Andreas Mogensen by tweeting this (I think the context is necessary):
“I think there’s some nuance here. If you ask NASA I think they’ll say they declined Elon’s offer to bring back the crew earlier because the $250M cost of an additional Dragon crewed flight is outside their budget, requiring a new funds appropriated by Congress.”
Elon saw this, and responded:
“Price was never even discussed! They flatly refused. We would have made it work within the annual budget.
The real issue is that they did not want positive press for someone who supported Trump.
That’s it. End of story.”
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1892617681796264436
So apparently this is what Elon meant when he called NASA’s decision “political.” He says he offered NASA (not sure just exactly who he talked to….Nelson? Stich?) a flight using Endurance on relatively short notice to go get the astronauts last fall, in some sort of budget neutral way. NASA refused, he says. He thinks they refused because they didn’t want to do anything that would make Elon look good while he was campaigning for Trump.
Of course, we only have Elon’s side of the story. Hard to think this conversation did not happen in *some* form. But that is all we have to work with right now.