Latest news with #Astronauts
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Ridiculed for Claiming He Rescued the Stranded Astronauts
Donald Trump insists, incorrectly, that he was the one to rescue those stranded astronauts — and he's getting roundly called out for trying to take credit for something he had almost nothing to do with. As the Washington Post reports, the plans for the safe return of Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita Williams, the astronaut pair who flew up on Boeing's leaky Starliner craft last June only to be stuck there for nearly nine months longer than expected, were in the works long before Trump even won his second presidential match-up against Joe Biden. Despite the president's claims on his dying Twitter clone that he "asked Elon Musk to go up and get the abandoned Astronauts, because the Biden Administration was incapable of doing so," their return on a SpaceX capsule as part of its Crew-9 mission was announced last August, when NASA also revealed that Starliner would be coming back to Earth uncrewed. Though Biden was president during the Starliner launch, meaning NASA was under his purview when it decided to go ahead with the expensive and long-overdue mission despite concerns about its safety, the decision to delay Wilmore and Williams' return was made out of pragmatism and not "politics," as Trump and Musk have suggested. Scientists had long warned that Starliner was not safe enough to fly, but it flew all the same. If NASA had risked sending the astronauts back down on it, we may have ended up with a tragedy the likes of which our country hasn't seen since the Columbia explosion more than 20 years prior. It's not hard to imagine that had Trump been president during that debacle last year, he may not have made the right call. Over on Musk's flailing social network, the MAGA crowd's jubilance was tempered by even-keeled holdouts who pointed out that Trump had "nothing at all" to do with the astronauts' return. "Did you know," the satirical PatriotTakes account posted, "that the so-called 'stuck' astronauts returned in a module already docked to the ISS since September 2024?" In a fit of literal gallows humor, another user included a gif of someone hanging themselves when joking about how well the president's propaganda works. "Trump just said the astronauts were stranded by Biden again," the user quipped. "And my grandparents just ate that shit up like their space autism grandson didn't just explain to them exactly what happened less than an hour ago." Similar epithets were reserved for the president on Reddit, where another user was incredulous that another poster thought Trump and Musk "rescued" the astronauts. "The astronauts themselves have said there was nothing political about this," the Redditor mocked, "and the arrangements were made for this in September, long before shit for brains took office." Trump's Truth Social post taking credit for the Williams' and Wilmore's return wasn't the first time he's fibbed about who deserves credit and blame for Starliner's failures and the subsequent stranding — and it almost certainly won't be the last. More on Trump's blame game: Trump: "Crooked Joe Sold Them Down the River With His Ridiculous All Electric Car Hoax"
CNN
19-03-2025
- Science
- CNN
Astronauts Exit Capsule, Now Undergoing Medical Checks - Erin Burnett OutFront - Podcast on CNN Audio
Astronauts Exit Capsule, Now Undergoing Medical Checks Erin Burnett OutFront 47 mins The two American astronauts who spent an unexpected nine months in space splash down off the coast of Florida. Plus, Putin carries out strikes across Ukraine hours after speaking to Trump and claiming he would stop attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure.
Washington Post
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Trump takes credit for astronauts' planned return. He had little to do with it.
As astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams prepared to make their way back to Earth for a planned Tuesday evening splashdown off the coast of Tallahassee, President Donald Trump praised the efforts to bring them home — and his own role in doing so. 'This began when I asked Elon Musk to go up and get the abandoned Astronauts, because the Biden Administration was incapable of doing so,' Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday, as a Musk-owned Space-X ship waited at the International Space Station to load its human cargo and head home. 'They shamefully forgot about the Astronauts, because they considered it to be a very embarrassing event for them — Another thing I inherited from that failed group of incompetents.' There was a rocket-sized hole in Trump's story, however: NASA had announced plans for the astronauts' return via SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft last August — five months before Trump returned to office. If Williams and Wilmore make it back to Earth without mishap, it will be a moment of collective relief — for observers around the world who have followed the astronauts' uncertain plight, for NASA administrators who made the controversial decision to delay their return in the name of safety, and for Musk and his SpaceX, the company that will have successfully ferried them home. But the astronauts' return also makes for some awkward politics: a president insistent on taking credit, and a government agency that could be facing an existential threat from the man whose company just brought its astronauts back safely. Musk is the founder and CEO of SpaceX, the company carrying the astronauts home. He's also leading the U.S. DOGE Service, an entity that has already made some cuts at NASA and is feared to be considering more. Those tensions could serve as backdrop if Wilmore and Williams — perhaps two of the country's highest-profile federal workers — travel to the White House for an event celebrating their return. The White House has not yet announced a date, but Trump has said he plans to make it happen. 'Under President Donald Trump's leadership, no American is left behind — promises made, promises kept!' White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in a statement Monday. Trump has described Wilmore and Williams, both veteran astronauts and retired U.S. Navy test pilots, as 'left up there' on the International Space Station. But that's not true. Back in June, the two pilots flew the first manned test flight of Boeing's new Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station, with the expectation that they would return eight days later. As they approached the space station, some of the vehicle's thrusters malfunctioned. Boeing tried to identify the cause of the problem and insisted that their Starliner was safe to fly back to Earth. But by August, after more than two months of troubleshooting and deliberations, NASA officials were still not convinced the Starliner was reliable. The Boeing spacecraft returned to Earth without its crew, and NASA announced that Wilmore and Williams would instead hitch a ride on a scheduled return flight — a SpaceX Dragon capsule due to fly in early 2025. 'Space flight is risky, even at its safest and even at its most routine,' NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at the time. 'The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring the Boeing Starliner home [unmanned] is a result of a commitment to safety.' That's not how Trump has described the decisions that led to the astronauts' return. In his telling, they were abandoned by President Joe Biden. 'We're coming up to get you, and you shouldn't have been up there so long,' Trump said in the Oval Office two weeks ago, when asked by a reporter about his message to the astronauts. 'The most incompetent president in our history has allowed that to happen to you, but this president won't let happen. We're going to get them out.' Trump went on to suggest that there had been no plan to bring the astronauts home until he decided to intervene. 'I've authorized Elon. I said, 'Can you get them out? … You gotta get them out,' ' he recounted this month. 'So I authorized Elon a week ago. I said, 'You know, we have two people up there that Biden and Kamala left up there.' And he knows it very well. I said, 'Are you equipped to get them?' And he said, 'Yeah.' He's got a Starship. And they're preparing it right now. And so Elon is going to go up and get them.' Charles F. Bolden, a former astronaut and NASA administrator, said Trump's comments reflect either willful ignorance or that he was misled by Elon Musk. 'If the chief technologist of SpaceX wasn't aware of the plan that was put in place last August, and he advised the president to say that he was getting ready to do a rescue mission, then that speaks loads about the CEO of SpaceX,' Bolden said. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the discrepancy between Trump's recounting of events and the announcement made by NASA last August. NASA also did not comment on Trump's comments — or on his accusation that the astronauts had been abandoned by the previous president. Trump has long been fascinated by space, seeing its exploration as a key symbol of the grand ambitions of his presidency — and using it, like so many other issues, to denigrate his political opponents. In the summer of 2020, Trump took down a campaign video trumpeting NASA's return to human spaceflight after criticism that his ad had politicized a major NASA event and violated the agency's advertising rules. At the time, a former astronaut featured in the video spoke out against it, saying she found it 'disturbing' that footage of her and her family were used 'in political propaganda without my knowledge or consent. That is wrong.' Now, more than four years later, NASA is facing a delicate moment in its relationship with the president. In response to mandates from DOGE, NASA recently laid off 23 employees and shut down three of its departments: the Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy, the Office of the Chief Scientist, and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility branch. More significant NASA cuts may lie ahead. And if Wilmore and Williams are invited to the White House, those who oppose further cuts will be watching to see whether, and how, the astronauts will raise those concerns with the president and with Elon Musk. Tactfully advocating for NASA is part of the job of being an astronaut, said John Logsdon, a professor emeritus at George Washington University and founder of the university's Space Policy Institute. 'The selection process for astronauts emphasizes their technical qualifications, but includes their ability to deal with various public situations — including the political support for the space program.' Logsdon said. 'So they are NASA's best, if you wish, lobbyists in Washington.' What might the astronauts say to Trump? 'Well, I think they will emphasize how important the space program is to making America great again, that it is a symbol of American achievement, and the idea that large cuts to the NASA workforce and the NASA missions is not a good idea,' Logsdon said. For some historians, Trump's intense interest in the plight of the astronauts calls to mind another incident: the Apollo 13 mission in 1970, when the explosion of an oxygen tank forced an aborted lunar landing. For four harrowing days, the nation watched raptly as a three-man crew survived in a lunar module, uncertain whether they would return safely to Earth. President Richard M. Nixon was deeply invested in the outcome, Logsdon said, viewing the astronauts 'almost like sons that he had never had.' And he knew the outcome of the mission would reflect on his presidency. When the astronauts made it home safely, Nixon traveled to Houston to honor the members of Mission Control before flying to Hawaii to greet the astronauts in person. Presidents look presidential when they're next to astronauts, said Luke Nichter, a professor of history at Chapman University in California. 'Upon the return of the astronauts, these were the greatest celebrities, not just in the country, but in the whole world,' Nichter said. 'The chance for any public figure to be seen with them at a time when not just many Americans were watching, but many people around the world — I think it's natural for someone in public life to want to be associated with their success.' Matt Viser contributed to this report.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
As NASA astronauts finally return to Earth, Trump takes the opportunity to attack Biden
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore finally began their journey back to Earth early Tuesday following a nine-month stint on the International Space Station that became political fodder for President Donald Trump's attacks on his predecessor. At 1:05 a.m. ET, Williams, 59, and Wilmore, 62, departed the space station, where they had been staying since June 2024, on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule alongside NASA's Nick Hague and Russia's Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. They are expected to splash down off Florida's Gulf Coast near Tallahassee shortly before 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Williams and Wilmore were initially expected to be on a weeklong mission after launching on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft last year. However, the crew encountered issues with the capsule's thrusters on its journey to the ISS, and the Starliner's return was delayed as engineers tried to troubleshoot its problems. NASA later decided to include the two astronauts in the station's regular six-month crew rotation. NASA eventually sent the uncrewed Starliner back to Earth, with the craft successfully landing in New Mexico on Sept. 7. Both astronauts have been good-natured about their extended stay. They have said they missed their families but were 'prepared and committed' to the mission, and they denied feeling neglected by the Biden administration. 'That's been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck — and I get it. We both get it,' Wilmore told CNN in an interview in February. 'But that is, again, not what our human spaceflight program is about. We don't feel abandoned, we don't feel stuck, we don't feel stranded." But Trump and billionaire Elon Musk — a top Trump ally and SpaceX's founder and CEO — have nevertheless claimed that the Biden administration left Wilmore and Williams in space for political reasons. Trump again echoed this narrative in a Truth Social post on Monday. He falsely claimed that the Biden administration 'shamefully forgot about the Astronauts, because they considered it to be a very embarrassing event for them,' and praised himself and Musk for bringing them home. This article was originally published on
