Astronauts stuck in space say they weren't 'abandoned' by Biden administration
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Two American astronauts stuck in space since last June are pushing back on President Donald Trump’s claim that they were “abandoned” by the Biden administration.
NASA astronauts Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore were scheduled to spend a week in space to test a Boeing Starliner capsule. However, mechanical problems delayed their return despite weeks of troubleshooting.
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Their return home was continually pushed back and is now delayed until sometime in late March.
In late January, Trump posted to Truth Social that he asked Elon Musk and his company SpaceX to get the astronauts, “who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration,” back down to Earth.
However, Wilmore said he doesn’t feel abandoned as astronauts are prepared for any issues that could arise.
“That’s been the rhetoric. That’s been the narrative from day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck,” Wilmore told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last week from the International Space Station.
“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.”
Wimore said he prefers “prepared and committed,” he but understands why some people may think otherwise.
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Williams said they are both doing well considering the length of time they have been at the space station.
“We’re doing pretty darn good, actually,” Williams said. “We’ve got food, we’ve got clothes, we have great crew members up here.
“Of course, it was a little bit longer stay than we had expected. But both of us have trained to live and work on the International Space Station. I think we’ve made the most of it.”
Musk wrote on X in response to Trump’s directive that SpaceX would bring them home “as soon as possible.”
“Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long,” Musk added.
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