Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Sunny” Williams headed to space on June 5 for an approximately eight-day mission. Now 273 days later, they’re still orbiting around the world on the International Space Station and are ready to return.
But to make sure they finally get down to solid ground, it seems like they’re trying to do everything possible to stay out of politics and not to piss off President Trump and Elon Musk.
Wilmore, the Starliner commander, and Williams’ short trip to space was derailed after issues with the Boeing Starliner that took them there prevented the astronauts from using it for the return. NASA eventually made a deal with Musk’s Space X to bring the astronauts home following its already-scheduled mission in February, which is now set to happen in late March.
Things became testy, when Trump said in January that the two were “abandoned in space by the Biden Administration.”
Musk said it was “terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long” and then later claimed the Biden administration delayed their return because “they did not want positive press for someone who supported Trump.”
Speaking at a press conference from the International Space Station on Tuesday, Wilmore said, “I can tell you at the outset, all of us have the utmost respect for Mr. Musk and obviously, respect and admiration for our president of the United States, Donald Trump.”
He also said “From my standpoint, politics is not playing into this at all,” according to CBS News.
Wilmore did not directly deny Musk’s allegation that the Biden administration left them up there so Musk wouldn’t receive good press.
“We have no information on that, though … what was offered, what was not offered, who it was offered to, how that processes went,” Wilmore said. “That’s information that we simply don’t have.”
In a statement that seemingly contradicts his claim about politics not being involved, he also said he believed Musk was “absolutely factual.”
“So I believe him,” Wilmore said. “I don’t know all those details, and I don’t think any of us really can give you the answer that maybe you would be hoping for.”
Speaking more broadly on politics, he added with careful wording that reflected his difficult position: “The words they’ve said, politics, I mean, that’s part of life. We understand that. And there’s an important reason why we have a political system and the political system that we do have, and we’re behind it 100%.”
In the meantime, the two are likely counting down the days they return. “We came up prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short,” Williams said. “That’s what we do in human space flight. That’s what your nation’s human space flight program is all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies. And we did that.”
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