Elon Musk Clashes with Danish Astronaut Over Alleged ISS Abandonment Claim
Elon Musk in Dispute with Danish Astronaut Over Alleged ISS Abandonment Claim Miranda Bryant, Nordic Correspondent, and Agence France-PresseElon Musk has found himself at the center of a controversy after a Danish astronaut challenged his claim that former US President Joe Biden intentionally left two American astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for political reasons.
During a Fox News interview alongside Donald Trump, Musk asserted that NASA’s Wilmore and Williams were abandoned on the orbital outpost. Andreas "Andy" Mogensen, a European Space Agency astronaut with two ISS missions under his belt, refuted Musk's statement, calling it a "lie" on X (formerly Twitter).
In response, Musk used an offensive slur against Mogensen and claimed that his company, SpaceX, had previously offered to bring the astronauts back, though he did not provide specifics.
The astronauts had initially traveled to the ISS in June on a Boeing Starliner for an eight-day test mission. However, thruster issues led NASA to opt for an uncrewed return of the Starliner and to assign their return to SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission.
Although initially scheduled for February, their return was postponed to March due to SpaceX delays. Mogensen pointed out that the return plan had been in place since last September, questioning Musk's narrative.
Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, also leads the Department of Government Efficiency under the Trump administration. His history of controversial remarks includes a 2018 defamation case in which he was acquitted after calling British cave explorer Vernon Unsworth a “pedo guy” during the Thailand cave rescue.
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