A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Two NASA astronauts stuck in space since last June are set to come home in a matter of days. Their plight has become political as President Trump and Elon Musk have blamed the Biden administration. But other astronauts and former NASA officials say the Biden White House had nothing to do with it. Joining us now to discuss the return of the astronauts and the politics around it is NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel. So, Geoff, let's start with what is actually happening today.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE: Later today, a rocket from Elon Musk's company, SpaceX, is scheduled to carry four astronauts to the International Space Station. A few days after that new crew arrives, three astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut from the previous crew will return to Earth on a different SpaceX capsule. And as you said, two of those astronauts are the, quote-unquote, "stuck" astronauts. Their names are Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. They launched last June and were supposed to be staying a week. But instead, because of problems with their experimental spacecraft built by Boeing, they've had to switch things up, and now they're coming home probably within a week or so.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. Fingers crossed, I'm assuming, for everyone involved.
BRUMFIEL: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: So what have Elon Musk and President Trump - what have they been saying about why they're in space?
BRUMFIEL: So Trump and Musk have been repeatedly claiming that Williams and Wilmore could have come down a long time ago, but the Biden White House kept them there. Here they are talking about it during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity last month.
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ELON MUSK: We are accelerating the return of the astronauts, which was postponed kind of to a ridiculous degree.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They got left in space.
SEAN HANNITY: They've been there - they were supposed to be there eight days. They're there almost 300.
TRUMP: Biden.
MUSK: They were put...
HANNITY: Yeah.
MUSK: Yes. They were left up there for political reasons, which is not good.
BRUMFIEL: And Musk has said on his social media platform, X, that he could have brought home the astronauts sooner. But the astronauts themselves say they don't really know what the president and Musk are talking about. Here's Butch Wilmore in an interview from space last week.
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BUTCH WILMORE: We have no information on that, though, whatsoever. What was offered, what was not offered, who it was offered to, how that processes went - that's information that we simply don't have.
BRUMFIEL: Now, active astronauts are notoriously careful when it comes to politics, but other former NASA officials and astronauts have said that Musk and Trump are just plain wrong. And it got ugly on social media when a former space station commander said the idea that they were stranded for political reasons was a lie. Musk called that astronaut an idiot and worse on X. And Musk and several astronauts have been fighting on social media ever since.
MARTÍNEZ: Geoff, I mean, this totally sounds like the most 2025 space mission ever. Can you give us any clarity on what actually is going on, please?
BRUMFIEL: Well, I'm obviously not privy to the conversations between NASA and Elon Musk, but I can tell you the following. So fact one - NASA says pretty clearly it left the astronauts up there out of an abundance of caution, not for any political reasons. They weren't sure their original ride on this Boeing capsule was safe enough to bring them home. Second, once they were up there, they became part of a regular space station crew. So basically, they were integrated into the space station. They've been doing normal duties, like experiments and spacewalks, and Suni Williams has actually been commanding the space station for the last few months. Finally, the spacecraft going up today is not a rescue capsule. In fact, the capsule that the crew is going to take home is the same one the last crew came up on, and it's been up there since September of last year. So they could have come home at any point if they really needed to.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel, thanks.
BRUMFIEL: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF EMILIE LEVIENAISE-FARROUCH'S "VESTIGES") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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