NASA astronauts stuck in space for months downplayed attempts by Elon Musk and President Donald Trump to politicize their unexpectedly lengthy stay in orbit.
"The words they said, well, that's politics. I mean, that's part of life," American astronaut Butch Wilmore told reporters on Tuesday from the International Space Station.
"From my standpoint, politics has not played into this at all," he added later.
Wilmore and crewmate Suni Williams have been living on the International Space Station since June after arriving on a Boeing Co. Starliner spacecraft, part of a roughly week-long test flight that aimed to determine if the vehicle was safe to carry people to and from space.
But after Starliner suffered technical difficulties on the journey there, NASA declared that it was too risky to bring the astronauts home on the craft.
The pair are slated to return home on a SpaceX mission in March, according to NASA. By then, they will have spent about 10 months in space.
Their extended stay has captured national attention and concern, including from Trump and Musk, the chief executive officer of SpaceX.
Trump in a post on Truth Social in January said that the administration of former President Joe Biden had "virtually abandoned" the pair. Musk has repeatedly stated that the astronauts had been left in space due to political reasons, and in a post on X in February said that he had offered to return the astronauts sooner.
Price was never even discussed! They flatly refused. We would have made it work within the annual budget.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2025
The real issue is that they did not want positive press for someone who supported Trump.
That's it. End of story.
Pam Melroy, former NASA deputy administrator under Biden, told Bloomberg News in February that top NASA officials had never received such an offer from Musk. Wilmore said on Tuesday that he believed Musk, but that he didn't have the details to confirm his claim.
"We have no information on that, though, whatsoever - what was offered, what was not offered, who it was offered to, how that process went," Wilmore said.
"All of us have the utmost respect for Mr. Musk and obviously, respect and admiration for our president of the United States, Donald Trump," Wilmore added. "We support our nation, we support our nation's leaders, and we're thankful for them."
Williams pushed back on Musk's recent suggestion that the International Space Station should be retired early, rather than at the end of 2030, as currently planned.
"I would say we're actually in our prime right now," Williams said of the ISS, adding, "I would think that right now it's probably not the right time to say, 'Quit.'"
Though Williams and Wilmore have been quick to downplay concerns about their extended stay in orbit, Williams did acknowledge that it has taken a toll on people back home.
"I think the hardest part is having the folks on the ground have to not know exactly when we're coming back," she said, adding, "all of that uncertainty, I think, is probably the most difficult part."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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