You might have thought our discussion of Starliner‘s crew was over, at least until the crew returned home on SpaceX’s Crew-9 Dragon. However, it seems like President Trump and Elon Musk are looking to make Boeing’s issue a political matter by calling for their return “as soon as possible.” Even though they are safe and have had no issues staying up on the station for an extended mission.
Tuesday, Elon Musk shared on X, “The [President] has asked SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the [ISS] as soon as possible. We will do so,” then adding his own comments: “Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.”
First, a fact check: Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, the crew that piloted Boeing’s Starliner Crewed Flight Test, are not currently and have never been “stranded” on the International Space Station. Since their docking with the station back in June of last year, the crew has always had the option of returning home on a spacecraft that wasn’t Starliner. It’s also important to note that the Boeing spacecraft that carried them up to space returned successfully.
That isn’t to say Boeing‘s failed flight test was not a disaster for NASA or the company. NASA’s goal with the Commercial Crew Program was to have dissimilar redundancy for crewed access to space. However, Boeing has failed to live up to its end of the bargain. All we know for now is that Starliner will not take flight again until 2026.
Currently, Butch and Suni have been on an extended mission as members of the Expedition 72 crew. They have been reassigned to SpaceX Crew-9 for their return, which arrived at the station last September with two open seats. As astronauts, the two crew members have expressed nothing but excitement and joy at staying in space longer.
The two are expected to return from space no earlier than March of this year. This will be after SpaceX launches its Crew-10 mission as a regularly scheduled crew rotation. That mission was delayed a month due to SpaceX’s need to finish up its brand-new Crew Dragon spacecraft that it will use for that mission.
So why is Elon bringing up an issue he didn’t seem to have any problems with when it meant SpaceX would be the hero? Between June 5, the launch of Starliner, and today, Elon has never expressed that Starliner’s crew needed to return home sooner than the next Crew Dragon flight, nor criticizing Biden for their delayed return.
Elon continued posting about Starliner, stating “there is no logical purpose to Starliner.” and “amazingly, no Starliner fines for Boeing!”, continuing to complain about SpaceX’s fines by the FAA last year.
This will likely be the first of many party politics that will be forced into decisions about NASA’s current mission. President Trump will likely use the previous administration’s “shortcomings” to warrant changes to his own Artemis Program and more.
However, there is little evidence that former President Biden played any large role in decision-making at NASA. In fact, President Biden’s unwillingness to change anything NASA was up to was likely the best thing a President has done for the agency in decades.
