Billionaire and high-tech Titan Elon Musk have congratulated SpaceX and NASA in celebration following the rescue of two astronauts stuck on the International Space Station for the past nine months.
“Thanks to the excellent work of the SpaceX team working with NASA, astronauts are now safe at home. And congratulations to the SpaceX NASA team on their excellent work,” Musk said in an exclusive interview with “Hannity” on Tuesday.
The founder of SpaceX and the face of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) provided President Donald Trump with a “big thankful note” to “prioritize and promote return.”
Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been on the International Space Station since June 2024.
Their mission was scheduled to last a week after Boeing's first astronaut flight was launched.
However, after the spacecraft encountered technical problems, NASA decided it was not safe for astronauts to board and return to Earth, and Wilmore and Williams remained stuck on the International Space Station for several months.
Wilmore, Williams, crew nine commander Nick Hague and Russian astronaut Alexander Golbunov returned to Earth on Tuesday, splashing down off the coast of Florida just before 6pm.
The return of Wilmore and Williams has become a political issue for the Trump administration, and Musk told Fox News host Sean Hannity on February 18 that Biden left the astronaut into space for “political reasons.”
Shortly after taking office, Trump appointed Musk to bring two astronauts home.
Trump also blows up for not acting early on former President Joe Biden.
“I just asked Elon Musk and @spacex to “go” two brave astronauts who were effectively abandoned in space by the Biden administration. They waited for months at the @space station. I posted a Trump at the time.
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At a post-landing press conference with SPACEX and NASA officials on Tuesday, NASA Space Operations Mission Bureau's Deputy Admin Joel Montalvano was asked about Trump and Musk's claim that the Biden administration did not want to bring back Starliner crews for political reasons.
“Yeah, so I wasn't involved in any conversations with the previous administration,” Montalvano said. “It's clear that there was a demand from the current administration, and the results you saw are what you saw today with the landing of Crew-9.”
Hannity pushed Musk onto the politics behind the astronaut's late return, and Musk set the record straight in communication with the previous Biden administration.
“We definitely offered to return the astronauts early, and there's no doubt about that,” Musk said.
“The astronauts were supposed to be there for only eight days and were there for almost ten months. So obviously, that doesn't make sense. SpaceX could have regained the astronaut in a few months at best.
