Sunita Williams’ Safe Return: Musk Accuses Biden of Political Interference
Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams has safely returned to Earth. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully brought back Williams and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore, landing them safely in the ocean off the coast of Florida. After landing, NASA officials transferred Williams and three other astronauts for medical evaluations.
Elon Musk congratulated both the SpaceX and NASA teams for another successful landing. However, he made a striking claim regarding the delays in Williams' return.
Williams and Wilmore had initially traveled to the International Space Station (ISS) for a planned one-week research mission. However, due to technical issues with their spacecraft, they were stranded there for an extended period. Their original Starliner spacecraft, instead of bringing them back, returned without them.
In a recent interview, Musk revealed that SpaceX had previously proposed a solution to the U.S. government to bring back the stranded astronauts. “We offered to send another spacecraft to bring back Sunita and Butch, but the Biden administration rejected our offer for political reasons,” Musk alleged. He stated that had the administration accepted SpaceX’s proposal, the astronauts would not have been stranded at the ISS for so long.
Despite the challenges, Musk expressed happiness over Williams and Wilmore’s safe return. He also extended his appreciation to the teams at NASA and SpaceX involved in the operation through a Twitter post.
