The Starliner saga is finally coming to an final stage with thereturn of NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmoreon Tuesday after a protract nine month stay in space . The narrative is largely over , but that did n’t forestall President Donald Trump from taking one terminal stab at the former judicature — a stab pack with disinformation , exaggerations , and outright falsehood .
cornet took to his social media platform Truth Social on Monday to once again take credit for the plan to convey the Starliner astronauts back home . The NASA twosome , Wilmore and Williams , launched to the International Space Station on table Boeing ’s CST-100 Starlineron June 5 , 2024 . The missionary station was supposed to last for eight daylight but NASA declared Starliner unsafe in the wake of alarmingtechnical number . Thespacecraft retrovert home empty , with Wilmore and Williams assigned a distich of seats aboard a SpaceX Dragon ballistic capsule , which finally undock from the ISS on Tuesday , March 18 at 1:05 a.m. ET .
Trump is artfully claiming to have facilitated arescue missionto institute the astronaut home , accusing the Biden administration of having “ abandoned ” them . The Chief Executive ’s modish social medium diatribe on the payoff of Crew-9,posted to Truth Social on Monday , is a doozy , replete with nonsensical claims and glaring inaccuracies . We went through Trump ’s office , fact - checking the president ’s various claim and providing scope and context of use to reveal the dead on target story . The president opens :
Trump is claiming to have organized the “rescue” mission to return the stranded Starliner astronauts.@ Truth Social/Donald Trump
I just spoke with the Acting Administrator of NASA , Janet Petro . She is coordinate our Team of highly esteem Scientists , Space Engineers , and various other “ ace , ” who has agreed to permit our Astronauts make out home long prior to the two hebdomad period primitively approved by NASA .
As the newly appointed acting decision maker for NASA , we seriously doubt that Janet Petro had much to do with this mundane SpaceX missionary station . If anything , she ’s being a duteous stooge , voiceless at workdismantling the distance agencyfrom the inside at her president ’s behest . Trump pretends to respect the space agency ’s “ Scientists , Space Engineers , and various other ‘ geniuses ' ” even as Petro carries out his executive order — closing multiple offices , laying off stave , and likely prepare for even more cuts . With Petro as the acting administrator , NASA haspaused the work of a number of astrophysics and planetary science committeesand removed references to key terms , includingreferences to women in leading , from its site .
Again , as a routine SpaceX mission , NASA ’s participation is minimal , and it ’s unclear which “ geniuses ” at the space agency purportedly played a persona in the return . And on that note , putting “ geniuses ” in quote distinctly feels like some kind of backhand burn .
That Trump also “ just spoke ” with Petro , and that she agreed to “ let our astronauts descend home , ” is yet another sick jape . This plan has been in the kit and boodle since August of last class . On September 28 , 2024 , NASA launched its Crew-9 mission with two astronauts instead of the common four ( the two being NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos spaceman Aleksandr Gorbunov ) . The two empty place were reserved for Williams and Wilmore , who became active and contributing members of Crew-9 — even performing spacewalks that , for Williams , resulted in a new record .
NASA Astronaut Suni Williams Smashes Spacewalking Record While ‘ strand ’ in Space
Trump add that his so - ring rescue delegation is bringing the astronauts home “ long prior to the two calendar week geological period originally sanction by NASA . ” The cosmonaut are indeed devolve home two week before than planned — at the insistency of Trump — but what does this even mean ? Long prior ?
Regardless , Trump may be referring to technical outcome with the SpaceX Crew Dragon that stay the launching of NASA ’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission . That meant Crew-9 , along with Williams and Wilmore , could n’t depart the ISS until Crew-10 make it at the station sometime in April . NASA end up switching the Dragon vehicle assigned to Crew-10,launching the missionon March 12 and returning the Crew-9 mission on March 17 after a brief handover flow . Technically , that did pull through the work party an extra two - week period or so on board the ISS , but for astronaut who had been in quad for more than nine calendar month , an spare two weeks would n’t have made much of a difference . Trump added :
Janet was expectant . She said , “ countenance ’s bring them home NOW , Sir ! ” — And I give thanks her .
Again , this gumption of an urgent call to fetch two astronauts back to Earth is pure fabrication . The Starliner crew was never in demand of a rescue mission — a Crew Dragon spacecraft — the one that launched in September — has been park outside the ISS this entire clip ! The crowd could have left the post at any item since September . However , doing so would have been incredibly wasteful , as the other Crew-9 astronauts would have had to link them for the return trip . Six calendar month stints aboard the ISS are stock .
Instead , Williams and Wilmore , as bona fide and fully trained NASA spaceman , were more than unforced to bear the responsibilities of the two astronaut who were n’t able to make the trip . This made horse sense for so many grounds — not least of which is the tremendous cost of launch cosmonaut to the ISS . It ’s also worth note that at no point did Wilmore or Williams say they were “ abandoned ” or hard done by the berth . Trump , however , is seemingly require to live out his crack of doom picture show fantasy . More from cornet :
This began when I asked Elon Musk to go up and get the abandon Astronauts , because the Biden Administration was incapable of doing so . They shamefully forget about the Astronauts , because they considered it to be a very embarrassing event for them – Another thing I inherited from that go wrong mathematical group of incompetents .
The programme to bring the Starliner crew home most certainly did not begin with Trump calling on his buddy Musk , CEO and proprietor of SpaceX , to call back the abandoned astronauts . In February , Musk take that he hadoffered the Biden administration a planto bring the two Starliner cosmonaut back sooner , without waiting for the Crew-9 delegation to return from the ISS . Musk has provided no evidence to back this claim .
This Starliner delegation was the first crew flight of Boeing ’s syllabus to transport astronauts to and from the ISS . It ’s a secret test flight , funded by NASA , with the space agency bank on a commercial-grade partner for its space travel endeavors . And yet we have Trump dumping on the former administration , and not Boeing , for this epic , mortifying fail . More from the president ’s post :
Elon and I have taken on the project , mail up the SpaceX Dragon , which has successfully dock and , hopefully , while there is always danger involved in such a missionary work , they will before long be on their way home — Taking off tomorrow , and land on Wednesday . Exact clock time will be provided to you . refuge always come first , and maximal standards are being adhered to .
This “ undertaking ” of which Trump verbalize is most for sure not of his or Musk ’s doing , as the programme has been in seat for months . And as observe , his only contribution was to hasten the coming back home by about two week . In realness , this is Trumpian political theatre of operations and an opportunity to tramp unwarranted shade onto the former administration .
Trump also attempted to heighten the drama of his so - called rescue mission by underline “ peril , ” even though these character of crew missions to the ISS have long been routine . Yes , there is always risk when it comes to spacefaring , but there ’s nothing unique about this missionary work . Also , it ’s landing on Tuesday . Trump close his mail by saying :
But after eight long calendar month for a commission that was supposed to be eight days , IT IS TIME . I look forrader to seeing Butch and Suni , and give thanks you again to NASA and Janet Petro !
Trump is , and will bear on to be , claiming that he rescue the Starliner astronauts , but the duo isunlikely to flirt into the chair ’s ploy to politicize the mission . “ The Son they said , well , that ’s politics . I mean , that ’s part of life , ” Wilmore told reporters during a late live webcast from the ISS . “ From my viewpoint , government has not toy into this at all . ”
There you have it — straight from the spaceman ’s mouth . But that wo n’t bar Trump from seizing on Boeing ’s troubled Starliner programme as yet another way to take gibe at his predecessor .
Boeing StarlinerNASAStarliner
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