‘What a lie’: Danish astronaut responds to Musk declare that Biden deserted ISS pair on goal | Denmark

Elon Musk has turn out to be embroiled in a heated row with a Danish astronaut who criticised the tech billionaire’s declare that the previous US president Joe Biden deserted two American astronauts on the Worldwide Area Station on goal.

Andreas “Andy” Mogensen accused Musk of mendacity when he claimed in a Fox Information interview alongside Donald Trump that Nasa’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been left stranded for “political causes” by Biden.

“What a lie. And from somebody who complains about lack of honesty from the mainstream media,” the 48-year-old European Area Company astronaut, who has flown to the ISS twice, wrote on X.

In response, Musk referred to as Mogensen “absolutely retarded”. He stated SpaceX, which he owns, may have introduced the astronauts again “a number of months in the past” and that he had made such a proposal to the Biden administration. Musk didn’t elaborate on what that provide entailed.

Wilmore and Williams flew to the ISS in June onboard a Boeing Starliner for what was meant to be an eight-day check mission to certify the brand new spaceship.

However thruster issues led Nasa to resolve that the Starliner ought to return with out its crew, and the company tasked SpaceX with bringing the veteran astronauts dwelling.

Nasa then introduced the pair would return on the SpaceX Crew-9 mission’s spaceship, which launched in September with a crew of two as a substitute of 4 as a way to accommodate them.

The voyage dwelling was initially scheduled for February however later shifted to March attributable to delays by SpaceX in getting ready the spacecraft for Crew-10, whose crew will exchange Crew-9’s. If there was an alternate rescue plan that would have been executed sooner, Musk has not revealed it.

Replying to Musk, Mogensen – who flew onboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule throughout a 2023 mission to the ISS – stated: “Elon, I’ve lengthy admired you and what you could have achieved, particularly at SpaceX and Tesla.

“You recognize in addition to I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since final September. Even now, you aren’t sending up a rescue ship to carry them dwelling. They’re returning on the Dragon capsule that has been on ISS since final September.”

On prime of being the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, and proudly owning X, previously often called Twitter, Musk leads the Division of Authorities Effectivity (Doge), an advisory division beneath the Trump administration.

In 2019 a court docket in Los Angeles discovered him not responsible of defaming the British cave explorer Vernon Unsworth, after a Twitter spat over the 2018 Thailand cave rescue throughout which Musk referred to as Unsworth a “pedo man”. Musk’s attorneys had argued that the tweet was not an announcement of reality, however an insult, which is taken into account protected speech.