1776Reporting
Two American astronauts have been stranded aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for nine months, and one former spaceman believes politics played a role in their extended stay.
Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams were originally scheduled to return after just 10 days. But after their Boeing spacecraft was deemed unsafe for the trip back, they remained in orbit. Now, former astronaut Clayton “Astroclay” Anderson suggests their delay wasn’t just about technical issues—it was about the presidential election.
“Elon [Musk] said it was politically motivated; I think there’s some truth in that,” Anderson told The Post. He explained that Musk had offered a SpaceX rocket to bring them home months ago but was turned down. “My opinion is that they didn’t want a disaster right before an election that they were trying to win and therefore asked the astronauts to sacrifice and stay in orbit.”
Musk himself confirmed his claim, posting on X on Feb. 20: “SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago. I OFFERED THIS DIRECTLY to the Biden administration and they refused. Return WAS pushed back for political reasons.”
Musk’s offer came after he publicly backed Donald Trump in July 2024, just weeks after Wilmore and Williams became stranded. It remains unclear when he directly approached the Biden administration with his proposal.
On Earth, Wilmore’s teenage daughter, Daryn, voiced frustration over the situation. “There’s been negligence,” she stated, expressing concern over why her father remained in space for so long. She further elaborated in a TikTok video, saying, “It’s less the fact that he’s up there sometimes; it’s more the fact of why. There’s a lot of politics, there’s a lot of things that I’m not at liberty to say in that I don’t know fully about.” Despite the uncertainty, she said she speaks with her father almost every day.
Anderson pointed out that NASA had contracted both SpaceX and Boeing to ensure redundancy in case of an emergency. “The original reason why SpaceX and Boeing were contracted was to give NASA redundancy. We got into a perfect situation where redundancy could be utilized and it wasn’t,” he said, emphasizing that political concerns should never interfere with space travel.
While Anderson acknowledged that astronauts are professionals who expect mission extensions, he also admitted it’s not an easy reality to accept. “We’re willing to stay and bite the bullet for NASA. That’s the expectation. Astronauts know that any space flight can be extended or shortened within a moment’s notice for any reason.” However, he added, “If it were me and I had to stay longer like that, I would be very angry.”
Public sympathy, he suggested, is not always there. “The prevailing attitude of people on the ground is just tolerate [the situation]. ‘They’re in space; they’re superheroes; they get to see the Earth. They’ll get over it.’”
For now, Wilmore and Williams remain aboard the ISS with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. But their return is finally in sight. NASA confirmed they will soon come back to Earth aboard a SpaceX four-seater—the same spacecraft that brought two astronauts to the ISS in September and has been docked there ever since, according to USA Today.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings