Musk and Danish Astronaut Clash Over ISS Crew Controversy
Mogensen, while expressing admiration for Musk’s work at SpaceX and Tesla, remained firm in his rebuttal.
Elon Musk engaged in a heated exchange with Danish astronaut Andreas “Andy” Mogensen on Thursday after alleging that former U.S. President Joe Biden had deliberately left two American astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS).
Mogensen, a European Space Agency astronaut, reacted after Musk’s comments surfaced in a Fox News clip featuring Musk and his boss, U.S. President Donald Trump.
In the video, Musk accused Biden of abandoning NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the ISS for “political reasons,” suggesting the new administration was now stepping in to assist them.
Musk asserted on X (formerly Twitter), “SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago,” adding that he had extended an offer to the Biden administration, though he did not elaborate on the details.
Mogensen, who has traveled to the ISS twice, including a 2023 mission aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, strongly refuted Musk’s claim. “What a lie. And from someone who complains about lack of honesty from the mainstream media,” the 48-year-old astronaut wrote.
However, due to thruster malfunctions, NASA decided Starliner should return without its crew. Instead, NASA tasked SpaceX with bringing the astronauts back.
NASA later announced that the two astronauts would return aboard the SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which launched in September with a reduced crew to accommodate them.
Initially planned for a February return, their trip home was postponed to March due to SpaceX’s delays in preparing Crew-10, the mission set to replace Crew-9.
Mogensen, while expressing admiration for Musk’s work at SpaceX and Tesla, remained firm in his rebuttal. “Elon, I have long admired you and what you have accomplished,” he wrote. “But you know as well as I do that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as planned since last September. Even now, you are not sending up a rescue ship. They are coming back on the Dragon capsule that has been on the ISS since last September.”