Did Biden Nix Plans for SpaceX to Bring Boeing Starliner Astronauts Home Sooner?
At press conference, astronaut Barry Wilmore confirms Elon Musk’s assertion that Biden rejected offer to bring Boeing crew home sooner. March 19th is now being targeted for the return date for Wilmore and Sunni Williams.
The last time I reported on the Boeing Starliner crew, whose 8-day jaunt to the International Space Station (ISS) as morphed into a 9-month expedition, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had tasked SpaceX to retrieve the stranded astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
After several delays and a change in crew plans, they will be back on Earth around March 19th.
To minimize the disruption to the station’s crew rotation schedule and on-going research, NASA opted to bump two astronauts from the next SpaceX Crew Dragon flight and to launch that mission, known as Crew 9, in late September with just two crew members on board. That left two empty seats for Wilmore and Williams.
The Crew 9 mission was initially expected to end this month, but the flight was extended to late March because of issues preparing a new Crew Dragon for launch, sources said. NASA later decided to use a different Crew Dragon, clearing the way for Crew 9 to undock and head for Earth around March 19.
Meanwhile, there are some indications that there is a controversy around reports that the astronauts were not brought home sooner due to Biden’s choices related to the presidential campaign occurring during the same time.
To begin with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk asserts he offered to bring Wilmore and Williams homes sooner, but it was rejected.
The astronauts were only supposed to be up there for 8 days and now have been there for 8 months.
SpaceX could have sent up another Dragon and brought them home 6 months ago, but the Biden White House (not NASA) refused to allow it.
President Trump asked to bring them back as… https://t.co/BVsHRn2Ocf
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 5, 2025
Then, Wilmore indicated he believed Musk.
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.
During the press conference, Wimore noted they were not aware of any offers.
…”So I believe him. I don’t know all those details, and I don’t think any of us really can give you the answer that maybe that you would be hoping for,’ he added.
The astronaut then gushed over Trump and Musk, saying ‘we have the utmost respect for them.’
Holy shiiit. Stranded astronaut admits that Elon (SpaceX) offered to rescue them but Biden rejected it.
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 6, 2025
However, it should be noted that Bill Nelson, who served as NASA administrator during the interval in question, also said that any offer by Musk never reached his office.
He said the top leadership at the space agency spent weeks trying to figure out the safest way to bring them home, ultimately deciding that SpaceX’s Dragon was a better option than Boeing’s Starliner. Nelson added that an early return was never discussed by him, his deputy or the heads of the agency’s human spaceflight division.
Of course, since then, we have learned about how bureaucrats can withhold essential information if they deem it politically expedient.
When they get to Earth, Wilmore and Williams won’t be heading straight home. They are going to have to undergo several weeks of physical therapy.
When the crew emerges from the SpaceX capsule on either March 19 or 20, they will be immediately placed on stretches and immediately taken for medical evaluations.
Dr Vinay Gupta, a pulmonologist and Air Force veteran said the astronauts could need up to six weeks of rehabilitation to regain their strength, which will include guided exercise and a nutritional plan.
The crew will begin their rehabilitation program the very same day they return to Earth, with the first phase focusing on walking, flexibility and muscle strengthening.
The launch date for the SpaceX Crew rescue ship is March 12. While it is sad they will be missing the St. Patrick’s Day festivities on top of all the other holidays that have passed while they were in orbit, here’s hoping the luck of the Irish is with Williams and Wilmore and they are home as scheduled.
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Comments
The Chief Parasite impedes the productive.
Gilligan’s Space Station is finally ending.
My concern is their total radiation exposure, this might end their career or greatly lower the time they can spend in space in the future.
I wouldn’t want to spend any future time in space if I were them.
Low-Earth roughly equatorial Orbit, particularly at the atmosphere-skimming altitude of the space station, is not that radioactive. The vast majority of the nasty stuff is blocked by the Van Allen belts. Skylab proved that, although there still are some weirdities that occur, like iron nuclui zipping through the visual cortex of the brain, making flashes seem to appear. I’m in my 60s, and if NASA was foolish enough to send me up, I’d probably be good for a year or two before any serious health consequences other than getting me pried away from the window and watching Earth pass by below. That might take some effort.
Biden didn’t give it much thought. The only thing Biden thought about the last few months was pardoning his family: making sure that the pardons were inclusive enough and all encompassing enough so as to cover every conceivable crime….and when was the right time to do it.
They definitely are damaged.
https://www.businesstoday.in/visualstories/news/cancer-risk-brain-damage-too-weak-to-walk-sunita-williams-body-wrecked-after-9-months-in-orbit-214201-05-03-2025
Neither one is young; this is NOT going to be easy for them to recover from
This makes me wonder about how much the failure at Boeing is tied to the same bozos who have run the government for so long?
Ortberg is new blood but from aerospace. The new CIO is former pentagon CIO. Change? who knows.
No.
Because Biden made zero decisions. I doubt he had the slightest idea they were even up there to begin with.
Jill or whatever staffer happened to manage to be in charge that day is the one that did it.
Good point.
But if he had any cognitive function he would have done the same thing because he was a petty, nasty piece of work.
“Because Biden made zero decisions. I doubt he had the slightest idea they were even up there to begin with.”
That’s why everything he signed was done with autopen.
I wouldn’t put anything past whoever was making the decisions for figurehead President Biden. Clearly, the United States has not had a Chief Executive in charge until DJT took over 20 January.
harris in 2020 said she wouldnt take the vaxxx if trump said to
and fjb set up more regs to make it even more difficult to cut government wasteful spending
the communists are winning but djt is trying to maga
he needs our help
I am concerned with all the hate aimed towards Elon Musk (from the left) where future SpaceX manned flights are concerned. I wouldn’t put it past TRS and MuskDS sufferers to sabotage a flight. Let’s hope it never comes to that.
Seems like some housecleaning is well overdue at NASA too.
I absolutely believe Musk. Biden didn’t want them to be retrieved by Elon because it would look bad for his administration and NASA as well as the huge contractor Boeing.
Keep your chin up.
The return of the two before the election would have had no upside for Biden, because… Musk and the latter’s endorsement of Trump. It was all politics for the Biden puppet masters all the way down.