Trump and Musk Double Down on Bogus ‘Stranded’ Starliner Astronauts Narrative

President Donald Trump and his bestest billionaire buddy Elon Musk continue to spread blatant lies about the situation surrounding the two Boeing Starliner astronauts currently aboard the ISS. In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, the pair once again—falsely—said the two astronauts are stranded and in need of rescue, and baselessly pinned the blame on former president Joe Biden.

In a transcript of the interview posted to the White House website, Trump made several false claims about the ongoing situation. He repeatedly told Musk that SpaceX has “the go-ahead” to proceed with a mission to return NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to Earth, saying such a mission “didn’t have the go-ahead with Biden.”

“He was going to leave him in space,” Trump added. “I think he was going to leave them in space.”

That, of course, isn’t true. In August, NASA announced they had a plan to bring Williams and Wilmore home alongside the crew of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission. That mission, launched on September 28, was originally supposed to include four astronauts traveling to the ISS, but the roster was cut to two to make room for Williams and Wilmore on the return trip.

That’s where Trump and Musk’s plan comes in. Crew-9 was supposed to leave the ISS later this month, but issues with the launch of the next mission, Crew-10, forced Crew-9, along with Williams and Wilmore, to push their return to early April. Under Trump’s orders, NASA shuffled some spacecraft on the ground, and the foursome are now scheduled to come back to Earth on March 19. In short, their so-called “rescue” is really just an early return by a couple of weeks.

Musk told Hannity that SpaceX is “accelerating the return of the astronauts,” who were “left up there for political reasons.” He appeared to be unclear on the exact timeline for the Starliner astronauts’ return, saying “I think it’s about four weeks to bring them back.”

NASA leadership has said politics have played no role in its decision making when it comes to Williams and Wilmore, citing safety as the main concern.

Both Musk and Trump have a stake in misrepresenting the situation. Musk is the owner of SpaceX, one of the United States’s main space travel contractors, and a direct competitor of Boeing. Trump, for his part, has repeatedly blamed predecessor Joe Biden, accusing him of abandoning the astronauts. The president has tried to cast himself in a hero role, saying on his Truth Social platform in late January that he had told Musk to “go get” the pair.

The Starliner mission has undoubtedly been a fiasco. Following the June 5 launch, which was the first time a crewed version of the Starliner flew to space, Wilmore and Williams were originally scheduled to spend just eight days aboard the ISS, but clearly have ended up staying much, much longer. That was because issues arose with the Starliner’s thrusters during its approach to the space station, along with five helium leaks. After numerous tests, the decision was ultimately made to return the craft to Earth with nobody aboard, due to safety concerns.

The capsule landed on September 7, but its crew has remained on the ISS, where, as bona fide NASA astronauts, they’ve been integrated into the crew’s duties (with Williams even setting a spacewalking record in the process!). Along with the very public nature of the failure, Boeing has suffered other consequences. The Starliner project was troubled for years, suffering through cost overruns and delays, as Boeing struggled to compete with SpaceX in the crewed commercial space launch realm. All told, the Starliner project has gone $2 billion over budget, as of a recent SEC filing. NASA has frozen future missions involving the troubled craft.

Musk’s companies, it should be noted, are on the receiving end of around $22 billion in government contracts. The DOGE leader has been told to self-police on any conflicts of interest, which is very reassuring.