Khaberni - American businessman Elon Musk revealed that the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden prevented him from rescuing astronauts stranded at the International Space Station before the 2024 presidential elections.
Musk said on a podcast hosted by American comedian and TV host Joe Rogan: "I was told that the instructions from the White House were that there should be no rescue attempt before the elections."
Rogan speculated that the Biden administration might have prevented Musk from carrying out a rescue mission because it would be politically damaging.
Musk responded: "They did not explicitly state that it would be politically damaging, but merely clarified that they were not interested in any rescue missions before the elections."
Musk noted that he was not surprised by the decision, as he did not have a good relationship with the Biden administration due to his support for former U.S. President Donald Trump during the campaign.
It should be noted that the "SpaceX" "Crew Dragon" returned to Earth with the "Crew-9" team on March 19. The team included Roscosmos astronaut Alexander Gerst, and NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore, Sunita Williams, and Nick Hague.
Wilmore and Williams arrived at the International Space Station as part of the first manned mission of Boeing's "Starliner" spacecraft, which Boeing launched on June 5, 2024. They were scheduled to stay in orbit until June 14. However, later, due to a fault in the spacecraft that caused several maneuvering engines to fail during docking, the return date was postponed to June 18, then to June 26, and then indefinitely.
NASA eventually decided to return the astronauts to Earth as part of the "Crew-9" mission in spring 2025.
