Elon Musk: SpaceX Could Have Brought NASA Astronauts Home Sooner

NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore spent almost 10 months on the International Space Station after their spacecraft suffered major failures, keeping them from returning as scheduled. But according to Elon Musk, they could have been back on Earth months earlier if the Biden administration had not rejected SpaceX’s help.

Musk told Fox News that SpaceX had the ability to bring the astronauts home long before NASA finally approved the return mission. “The astronauts were only supposed to be there for eight days, and they’ve been there for almost 10 months,” Musk said. “SpaceX could have brought the astronauts back after a few months at most. And we made that offer to the Biden administration. It was rejected for political reasons, and that’s just a fact.”

The astronauts launched on June 5, 2024, aboard Boeing’s Starliner, but the spacecraft quickly encountered problems. Helium leaks and thruster malfunctions made it unsafe for reentry, leaving the crew stranded for months.

Earlier this year, Trump called out the Biden administration for refusing to act, accusing them of leaving the astronauts in space. He later said he had asked Musk to handle the situation, ensuring SpaceX could move forward with the mission.

On Tuesday, the astronauts returned to Earth in a SpaceX Dragon capsule, splashing down off the Florida coast alongside Crew-9 Commander Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

NASA official Joel Montalbano refused to say whether Biden had delayed the mission, stating only that the agency followed orders from the administration.

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