“You know as well as I do that Butch and Suni are scheduled to return with Crew-9, as planned since last September,” he remarked on X, referring to NASA’s strategy for flying Wilmore and Williams back alongside two current crew members from the space station. “To this day, you have not sent a rescue ship to fetch them. They will return aboard the Dragon capsule that has been at the ISS since last September.”

Mogensen served as the commander of the space station from September 2023 to March 2024 during his most recent mission. He has not yet responded to requests for further comment.

NASA affirmed its commitment to executing crew rotation missions and operating aboard the International Space Station for the benefit of humanity and future long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.

The White House has not provided an immediate response to inquiries.

Veteran Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who led the space station in 2013, chimed in on the controversy, sharing comments he first made on X on February 14.

“Suni and Butch have never been ‘stranded’ in space,” Hadfield stated. “They are well-prepared and dedicated to the mission, just like all professional astronauts. Under Suni’s command, they are performing spacewalks and working diligently on behalf of NASA and its partners, truly enjoying their experience.”

This exchange comes as Musk’s involvement as a prominent political advisor to Trump has drawn additional scrutiny regarding his tendency to disseminate false and misleading information. Recently, Musk has made a series of inaccurate claims about fraud and spending in the U.S. government.

Musk had previously leveraged Wilmore and Williams’ situation to make political remarks. Shortly after Trump took office, Musk tweeted on X that the president requested SpaceX to bring the astronauts home “as soon as possible.”

“We will do so,” Musk asserted. “It’s unfortunate that the Biden administration left them there for so long.”

Wilmore and Williams launched to the International Space Station using Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in June, with plans for a short stay as part of a test mission.

However, the capsule faced multiple challenges, resulting in the astronauts staying at the space station longer than anticipated. NASA decided to bring the Starliner back to Earth without crew in September.

Under the Biden administration, NASA opted to task SpaceX with returning Wilmore and Williams to Earth. This involved rearranging current crew assignments to open up two of the four seats on a SpaceX capsule launched in late September for their return trip.

This flight was initially set for this month but has been postponed to at least late March. NASA cited the need for additional time to “complete processing” on a new SpaceX spacecraft designated to transport four crew members to the space station.

In its statement, NASA emphasized that the launch of the Crew-10 flight and the return of astronauts from the ISS are both “subject to mission readiness and the agency’s thorough flight certification process.”

Once the new crew arrives, Wilmore and Williams, along with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, will depart the station on a different capsule. New and departing crews usually overlap during a transition period, enabling astronauts to share insights regarding ongoing experiments, maintenance tasks, and other essential protocols.

In a recent Fox News interview, President Trump reiterated the unsubstantiated claim that Wilmore and Williams had been abandoned.

“They were left in space,” Trump asserted.

Nevertheless, the two astronauts have contested that narrative in subsequent interviews.

In an interview with CNN on February 13, Wilmore remarked: “That has been the narrative since day one: stranded, abandoned, stuck — and I understand that sentiment. However, that is not what our human spaceflight program represents. We don’t feel abandoned, stuck, or stranded.”

Musk also commented on Thursday, suggesting that the space station should be decommissioned and his preference would be to do it within two years, rather than NASA’s plan to retire it by 2030.

“It has fulfilled its purpose. There is minimal additional utility,” he expressed. “Let’s move on to Mars.”

In its response, NASA stated that it plans to continue using the International Space Station, along with any potential future commercial space stations, as training grounds and laboratories for crewed missions to the Moon and Mars.

“We eagerly await further insights on the Trump administration’s strategy for our agency and the expansion of exploration for the benefit of everyone,” the statement concluded.