One of the NASA astronauts trapped on the International Space Station said he believes Elon Musk’s claim that the Biden administration rejected the SpaceX CEO’s offer to help bring the team home.
Barry “Butch” Wilmore made the comment Tuesday during an in-orbit press conference with fellow castaway Sunita Williams nine months after their Boeing Starliner capsule malfunctioned and left the pair stuck on the ISS.
One questioner asked about Musk’s recent claim that former President Joe Biden had intentionally stalled their rescue for “political reasons.”
In an earlier question, Wilmore denied that politics had anything to do with the team’s delayed departure, but he seemed to shift his stance when answering the later question.
“I can only say that Mr. Musk, what he says, is absolutely factual … I believe him,” he said.
SpaceX launched a Crew Dragon capsule to rescue the pair last September, but after it docked at the space station, NASA opted to stall its return.
Musk, who donated $288 million to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that working with him to bring the astronauts back would have made Trump “look good” and that Biden “didn’t want the publicity” so close to the presidential election.
Although Wilmore said he trusts Musk, he added that he and Williams knew nothing about the behind-closed-doors discussion regarding their rescue.
“We have no information on that, though, whatsoever. What was offered, what was not offered, who it was offered to, how that process went. That’s information that we simply don’t have,” he said.
Wilmore also voiced his support for both the new president and the world’s richest man.
“All of us have the utmost respect for Mr. Musk, and obviously, respect and admiration for our president of the United States, Donald Trump. We appreciate them. We appreciate all that they do for us, for human space flight, for our nation,” Williams said.
The comment came two weeks before Wilmore and Williams’ belated return to Earth.
The pair also fielded a question about Musk’s recent statement on X that the international community should take the ISS out of orbit “as soon as possible” and devote its resources to reaching Mars.
On that point, they did not agree with the billionaire.
“I actually was extremely impressed coming up here and seeing how much science is going on,” Williams said. “This place is ticking. It’s just really amazing. So I would say we’re actually in our prime right now. … I would think that right now is probably not the right time to say, quit, to call it quits.”
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