--- title: "NASA Astronauts Puzzled by Elon Musk’s Outburst" description: "The NASA astronauts stranded aboard the ISS said they received \"no information\" about Elon Musk's supposed plans to rescue them sooner." date: "2025-03-06" modified: "2025-03-06" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/nasa-astronauts-puzzled-elon-musk-outburst" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "NASA" - "Space" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "international space station" - "NASA" --- # NASA Astronauts Puzzled by Elon Musk’s Outburst ![The NASA astronauts stranded aboard the ISS said they received "no information" about Elon Musk's supposed plans to rescue them sooner.]() *\Image: Win McNamee / Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP via Getty / Futurism\* Elon Musk's attempt to blame the Biden administration for why the pair of astronauts aboard the International Space Station have had to stay even longer in orbit is [blowing up in his fac]()e — again. In a [*Fox News* interview]() alongside president Donald Trump last month, Musk boldly claimed that Joe Biden opted to leave the NASA astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, in space for "political reasons," rather than bring them home sooner. Williams and Wilmore have been aboard the ISS for eight months, after the spacecraft that ferried them there, Boeing's Starliner, [malfunctioned badly](). Following the interview, a European astronaut and ISS veteran called Musk's claims a "lie." In response, the billionaire special government employee [threw a tantrum](), calling the astronaut a slur and doubling down on his previous claims about Biden's decision. "SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago," Musk [fumed](). "I OFFERED THIS DIRECTLY to the Biden administration and they refused." Now, the stranded astronauts themselves have weighed in — albeit while trying to [stay as apolitical as possible]() — and they say they've never heard of any such plans, the [*Washington Post* ]()[reports](). In a press conference broadcasted from the ISS, Wilmore told reporters that he and Williams received "no information" about Musk's supposed offer of an earlier return. "What was offered, what was not offered, who it was offered to, how that process went — that's information that we simply don't have," Wilmore said, as quoted by *WaPo*. Even Bill Nelson, who served as NASA administrator under Biden, says it's the first he's hearing of Musk's plans, he told the newspaper in an interview. "It certainly did not come to my attention," Nelson told *WaPo*. "There was no discussion of that whatsoever. Maybe he \[Elon Musk\] sent a message to some lower-level person." Nelson said the agency's decision was to use SpaceX's Crew Dragon, instead of Boeing's Starliner, to return Williams and Wilmore. A Dragon capsule is currently docked at the ISS, but will not depart until another one of the SpaceX vehicles brings four fresh crew members to replace the outgoing astronauts. That mission, Crew-10, was originally slated for February but was [pushed back to this month]() to buy engineers additional time to prepare the vehicle. The [plan is to now use a SpaceX capsule]() that has already flown instead of prepping a brand new one. Conflicting accounts aside, Musk's mythical plan to rescue the astronauts sooner wouldn't have worked in NASA's logistical and financial position at the time. "We didn't have the money to bring an additional Dragon to go up just for them, but we had another rotation coming up fairly soon," Nelson told *WaPo*. Shocker, but it's sure sounding like Musk was fibbing about this whole saga. It can't be overlooked that the world's richest man has an ugly history of throwing a fit when he doesn't get to be the hero. He once [baselessly slandered]() a British diver who helped rescue children trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand a "pedo" — after the diver's courageous acts foiled Musk's harebrained proposal to use a mini-submarine to save the day. **More on space:** *[SpaceX Having Trouble Getting Starship Launched Again After Explosion]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()