Musk said that the Biden administration had banned the rescue of astronauts from the ISS. They spent six months in space instead of eight days.

Musk said that the Biden administration forbade him to rescue astronauts from the ISS.

Entrepreneur, billionaire, founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, said that the administration of former US President Joe Biden last year allegedly forbade him to rescue astronauts stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) before the presidential election.

Comedian and TV host Joe Rogan, on whose podcast Musk spoke about this, suggested that it would be a bad political move for the Biden administration. The head of SpaceX explained that there were no direct words about a bad political step, "they just made it clear that they were not interested in any rescue operations before the elections."

Musk added that he was not surprised by this decision, as he "was not in the best standing with the Biden administration" because of his help in the election campaign of US President Donald Trump, and agreed with Rogan's opinion that this was crazy.

In March, the billionaire also noted that the Biden administration's proposal to return astronauts after a couple of months in space "was rejected for political reasons."

The Starliner crew spent six months on the ISS instead of eight days

The Starliner spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams departed for the ISS on June 5, 2024. It was the first launch of a Boeing-built Starliner with a crew. The astronauts were originally supposed to spend eight days in space, checking the possibility of manually controlling the spacecraft when docking with the ISS and maneuvering during the return trip to Earth.

The problems started a day later — the Starliner docked to the ISS on the second attempt. It turned out that 5 of the 28 orientation engines of the spacecraft had failed, and liquid helium was leaking in its systems.

Then the mission was extended several times, first by several days each time, and at the end of August it was announced that the Starliner would be returned to Earth without Wilmore and Williams, they would remain on the International Space Station until February 2025. "This will allow NASA and Boeing to continue testing the Starliner during its return flight, as well as not putting the crew at risk," NASA said in a statement. Elon Musk stated at the time that if it weren't for his company, the only way to bring Wilmore and Williams back to Earth would be to seek help from Russia.

On September 7, the Starliner undocked from the ISS in unmanned mode. In December, it became known that SpaceX's Crew-10 spacecraft would travel to the ISS in March 2025 and return the Starliner crew to Earth.

Astronaut Barry Wilmore said in March [...] that the stranded crew has great respect for Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump. "We appreciate them. We appreciate everything they do for us, for manned space flights, for our country," Wilmore said.

Commenting on Trump and Musk's statements that the Starliner crew was "stuck" on the ISS for political reasons, Wilmore noted that astronauts in low-Earth orbit may not be privy to all the subtleties and processes that politicians know about. "And I'm sure they have some problems that they're dealing with, information that they have that we're not privy to. Therefore, when I think about your question, it is a part of life, we agree with this," the astronaut clarified. Musk also responded to their video message, adding : "SpaceX could have sent another Dragon and brought them home six months ago, but the administration of [former US President Joe] Biden (and not NASA) refused to grant permission for this."

As a result, Crew Dragon with astronauts went to Earth on March 18. In addition to Williams and Wilmore, he also brought home Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov and NASA astronaut Nick Hague.