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Trump, Musk join forces to bring stranded NASA astronauts back via SpaceX after Biden admin ‘abandoned’ them


https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/trump-musk-join-forces-bring-stranded-nasa-astronauts-back-via-spacex-after-biden-admin-abandoned-them

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he has tasked his new Department of Government Efficiency head, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, with bringing home two astronauts who he said have been "abandoned" by the Biden administration."

Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been in space for the last 8 months and Trump blasted the former president for not acting sooner.

"I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to ‘go get’ the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration. They have been waiting for many months on @Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon!!!" posted Trump."

Musk also took to social media to express his disdain and vowed to bring them home "as soon as possible."

"The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @SpaceStation as soon as possible. We will do so," Musk posted via X Tuesday evening. "Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long."

President Trump is the REAL CAPTAIN AMERICA saving our Astronauts after Biden and his Inept Administration forgot them and why?? Probably because they were too busy going after Trump to prevent him from winning the 2024 Election

https://giphy.com/gifs/trump-capitaine-america-E8A5A31KycVOGEvK0U

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Even the haters on this board would have to appreciate this......no?

Come on haters, just make a single comment on how you hope Trump and Musk succeed.

Haters...you do want them to succeed, right? You do want Trump, Musk and astronauts to help save 2 American citizens, right?

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You posted your comment an hour ago and they're still having to think about it.. You believe this shit?? TDS at it's finest

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They hate President Trump so much that they want to see this Country burn to the ground under his leadership. They hate President Trump so much that they hope he fails in his mission to bring home 2 abandoned astronauts. They all hope the astronauts die so President Trump fails in his attempt to save their lives.

Take RanB for example. She is a mentally ill woman who is so obsessed with her President Trump that she scours this message board every 2 minutes. She had made posts since your original post and since my post my response and she has not chimed in to say that she hopes that President Trump and Musk are successful. She wants two abandoned American astronauts to die so President Trump looks bad. This is beyond TDS...these people have a true mental illness.

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They hate anyone who goes against their cult.

Remember when Trump was Hitler? Now it’s Elon. Next will be JD. Then RFk. Then Tulsi. And Hegseth.

Just as they did with…Romney, and McCain, and W, and Gingrich, and Dole, and Clarence Thomas, and HW Bush, and Oliver North, and Ronald Reagan, and Richard Nixon.

The Democrat cult is intellectually bankrupt. They’re easy to predict and easy to laugh at. They haven’t had a pro America first representative since JFk, and they had him killed

“Communists read Marx and Lenin, anticommunists understand them” - Ronald Reagan

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Right...I'm really sure those astronauts were just "abandoned" in space. [rolleyes]

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they were abandoned in space by Dictator Joe, this is a fact.

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This is actually complete bullshit on Musk's part - the Dragon spacecraft (Crew-9) that's going to take them home is already docked at the ISS and has been since September. Two of the original crew were removed in order to accommodate Butch/Suni after Starliner returned unmanned.

It has literally nothing to do with Trump coming into office. Trump may be uninformed about the issue, but Elon certainly isn't... and he chose to blatantly lie about it anyway. As I've said before, I've defended him for many years against smear campaigns and the like, but there's really no defense for this. It's straight BS.

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Do you hope that President Trump and Musk are successful in getting them home?

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I was glad when SpaceX originally altered the seating of Crew-9 for that purpose, months ago. Are you going to acknowledge reality that this has literally nothing to do with Trump, or are you going to continue to behave like a mindless automaton?

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Sure, I'll acknowledge that.

Since you were glad that SpaceX is helping, do you hope that Elon Musk is successful in getting those two astronauts back home?

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Considering that I've been a fan of SpaceX and Elon likely before you even knew they existed - yes. I don't hope however that Elon is successful with bizarre lies like this one, seemingly pandering to the uninformed and pushing false narratives in no way dissimilar to the left. Props to you for course correcting on the topic.

I'm also glad Trump has already begun to reverse some of the insanity of the Biden administration, but I will call out any and all bullshit regardless of wherever it's shat out from.

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Yes, I'm sure you were a fan of Elon and Space X before we knew they even existed 🙄

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Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, seeing how utterly clueless you are about this topic. Some of us have been following SpaceX since its inception in the early 2000s, boy.

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Please, allow me to hand you a tissue to wipe your tears son. Salty indeed

https://giphy.com/gifs/travisband-travis-salty-dougie-payne-bR420cexi00aTpUDXN

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A bit curious, if Crew-9 was already docked at ISS since September, why didn't NASA use it to bring back the astronauts much sooner?

Why wait for Trump administration?

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Maybe because NASA has the experience that rushing things will result in catastrophes likes the Challenger disaster in 1986?
They aren't waiting for Trump or any other politician, they are carefully making sure the mission is as safe as possible and that takes its time.

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I don't think that was the case: https://www.npr.org/2025/01/28/nx-s1-5278636/iss-astronaut-rescue-spacex-trump

The astronauts arrived at the International Space Station on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft after launching from Florida's Cape Canaveral in June 2024. The test flight was supposed to last only eight days. But engineers at NASA and Boeing uncovered issues with the spacecraft's propulsion system, and decided to return the vehicle back to Earth without a crew. The two have remained at the station ever since.

They went up there for 8 days, but stayed there for more than 7 months.

I did not follow the event closely, that is why I was asking people with knowledge of that. But I think you probably know less than me.

I think it might have something to do with NASA contracts, you see the contract of transporting astronauts could have already been awarded to Boeing, but since Trump is in power, I think a lot of NASA contracts would now go to SpaceX.

Then again this is my baseless speculation, that is why I want someone actually knows this to give me some sights.

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To get reliable answers to that, you'd have to ask internal sources of NASA and I highly doubt they would give you any answers.
Without that all we have is speculations, where your guess is just as good as anyone elses.
For all I know Boeing has been increasingly in the headlines of the media for badly designed stuff, cutting corners to save expenses with the result that many things went wrong, up to airplane crashes with many deaths.
Therefore I believe the move away from Boeing is independent from any politician but an internal decision made within NASA.

Furthermore what we see may be the result of increasing corruption.
We know SpaceX charges NASA prices for everything they do that exceed the costs it would have taken if NASA had done it themselves, but political gameplay has kept funding for NASA so low that they just couldn't do it themselves, while giving more expensive contracts to private enterprises like SpaceX get approved through corruption.

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Because Crew-9 is a full multi-month mission to the ISS with other astronauts. Before launching in September two of the original crew were removed to accommodate Butch/Suni - this wasn't some specific rescue mission launched for the sole purpose of their return, it was an upcoming mission that was modified for a secondary purpose. This all takes tremendous planning and launching crew to space is highly complex, it's not as simple as "well just send an extra rocket up there".

They do these missions in rotation, so once Crew-10 arrives, that's when 9 will return to Earth. This plan has not changed since August:

https://x.com/NASA/status/1827396382702878966
https://x.com/Commercial_Crew/status/1827400923154366799

If you want a lot more details though, feel free to read this post by Everyday Astronaut (someone who was originally going to fly on Starship until Dear Moon was cancelled, and has done numerous technical interviews with Elon on spaceflight): https://x.com/Erdayastronaut/status/1884673172533903481

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Thanks, that "Everyday Astronaut" post is indeed helpful.

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The only source for "abandoned" is Trump. He makes it sound like NASA sends up and brings down astronauts at the president's whim or command. Total nonsense.

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Right?!

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Cite sources that show Trump is the only source.

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That's what heroes do.

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I surely hope Musk is successful in bringing home the astronauts. I wouldn't go so far as to say the Biden administration abandoned them but still, eight months is long enough.

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Nah, the Biden Administration completely forgot about them because they were too busy wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth at Trump

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