How can you hate a guy who rescues stranded astronauts?
The US astronauts stranded on the International Space Station joyfully emerged from their rescue capsule following a dramatic but smooth return to Earth Tuesday — months after their days-long jaunt in orbit turned into a headline-grabbing space odyssey.
Butch Wilmore, 62, and 59-year-old Suni Williams splashed down off the coast of Tallahassee, Fla., aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule just before 6 p.m. EST Tuesday, concluding a nine-month stint in space that was supposed to last just eight days when it launched in June 2024.
“Butch, Suni, on behalf of SpaceX, welcome home,” a mission-control dispatcher radioed the crew moments after the capsule Dragon Freedom splashed down.
Less than an hour later, the duo — along with American astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov — were extracted from the capsule onboard a recovery vessel, and each was filmed beaming, waving and pumping their fists as they were helped to their feet and whisked away on wheelchairs. …
Long stretches living in space can result in muscle atrophy and vision impairment upon returning to gravity, each of which and other problems they’ll be monitored for before being cleared to return to their families.
Musk contended that Biden had turned down his offer to rescue them back in September, fearing a disaster prior to the election.
Musk used to be a hero to the left, and Teslas were the virtue-signaling wave of the future. Once he threw in his lot with Trump, he became an enemy.
NPR covers the story by adding the following:
Shortly after taking office in January, President Trump said he asked his close political adviser and SpaceX founder Elon Musk to “go get” Williams and Wilmore, whom Trump said had been “virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration.”
In fact, the astronauts’ ride back to Earth had been docked on the ISS since September. The SpaceX Dragon capsule that flew the pair home on Tuesday arrived at the space station in the fall with two empty seats for the duo’s return trip.
NASA said it had decided to integrate Williams and Wilmore into the space station crew for technical and budgetary reasons, and during their time on the station the pair has been conducting experiments and spacewalks.
Musk said in February that he had made an offer to the Biden administration “months ago” for SpaceX to bring the astronauts home early, but that the administration “refused” and delayed the pair’s return for “political reasons.”
Two former NASA officials under the Biden administration, including former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, said they were unaware of any such offer.
The implication is that Musk and Trump aren’t telling the truth, and that NASA wanted to leave the astronauts up there for almost half a year longer, and that politics had nothing to do with it. To me, the story told by Trump/Musk is more plausible.
Anyway, welcome home.
NOTE: See also this:
TERROR: Democrat activists have taken the attacks on Tesla to an entirely new level publishing a hit list for activists to target the homes of owners, stores, and charging stations. To get removed from the list Tesla owners must prove they sold their cars. It is time for the FBI and DOJ to investigate who is behind these coordinated attacks. In this case multiple laws are likely being violated:
– 18 U.S.C. § 119 – Publishing Restricted Personal Information (Trump could extend this to Tesla owners)
– 18 U.S.C. § 2261A – Interstate Stalking
– 18 U.S.C. § 875 – Interstate Threats
– 18 U.S.C. § 1030 – Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)
– Doxxing Laws (TX, FL, and CA)
– Incitement to Riot (or Public Disorder)
– Stalking & Harassment Laws
– Trespassing & Criminal Mischief (as Accomplice Liability)
It’s easy to hate things and people and everything when that’s all you’re made of.
While the two astronaut’s stay in zero g wasn’t record setting, it was very long. I heard a list of rather significant medical issues that have been documented for such a long stay. I’d say that adds to the BS factor that is likely involved in the Biden admin claims.
To me, the story told by Trump/Musk is more plausible.
–neo
Me too.
Yeah I noticed that the anti-Musk reporting on this just takes NASA’s word for it. The Top Men said so, and the “journalist” writes it down.
If you ask me, being kept up there for so many more months because of the budget is worse, in a way, than political animus. You can imagine how they’d report on Musk if HE kept astronauts over for months because he wanted to stay within his rocket budget.
So NPR found two NASA officials to say exactly what they needed to say to impugn Elon Musk’s version of events. Time to invoke the Latin phrase, Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.
This is a government, and a media, that has lied to the American people about many things. Now we are supposed to believe there was no attempt to delay the astronauts’ return to deny Elon and by extension Trump a PR victory.
No. I don’t believe them. And I suspect the reason why the NASA officials didn’t hear of Elon Musk’s offer is that Musk contacted someone much higher than them on the totem pole, the White House rejected the offer, and that was that, since the officials questioned were out of the chain of command.
“I didn’t hear about such an offer” holds about as much weight as Comey’s “I don’t recall” during his testimony.
Tommy, I think a record was set with their stay. The longest a WOMAN has spent in space. Given the physiological difference between men and women, it’s actually a relevant achievement from the bio-sciences standpoint.
Moving on, IIRC, they keep a capsule up there now in the event they have to bail. So taking it down for a ride would have left the others up there hanging if things went sideways. So in that sense they were stranded.
How can you hate the guy?
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With the exception of a few wonks like Harold Pollack, progtrash politics is accusatory and contemptuous in character. The better among them are merely confused and resentful. The rest are despisers and haters. They differ in how the quantum of ire is distributed among the various social enemies.
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Musk is a man with real (and quantifiable) achievements. Progtrash admire only people who fit into narratives or into slots in their arbitrary strata of value or into credentialed positions in apparats controlled by progtrash.
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What they know of Musk right now is that he is in their way.
hate is not a rational expression, to begin with
didn’t the FAA try to cancel Space X because of one pretext or another,
So NPR found two NASA officials to say exactly what they needed to say to impugn Elon Musk’s version of events.
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How much you want to bet they found other officials who confirmed it but filed that bit of information away?
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If NPR ever attempted to be an impartial news source, that attempt came to an end around about 1977, when the board installed George McGovern’s 1972 campaign manager as their chief operating officer. (See Fred Barnes critiques of their Latin America reporting, published in 1987). It’s a testament to the ineffectuality of the Republican congressional caucus that the appropriation for NPR has never been eliminated, even for a single two-year period.
Obviously it is in NPR’s interest to remain incurious about the claims of 2 NASA officials. For the Legacy Media The Narrative is paramount, as ever. The actual truth is only consequential when it serves The Narrative, and it is to be discarded or ignored when it contravenes it. For the Legacy Media it’s always best to treat the consumers of their content like mushrooms. And conveniently these mushrooms are usually more than happy to have their biases cofirmed anyway.
I do not condone the violence inflicted on Tesla owners or dealerships. I do like to believe that a majority of Tesla owners are Libs. So, violence on Libs by Libs is wonderful to behold.
Kind of like the attacks on Schumer. Will he be doxed too, and swatted?
How can you hate a guy etc.?
I dunno. Is he a Yankees fan?
@SHIREHOME:I do like to believe that a majority of Tesla owners are Libs.
I think this stopped being true quite some time ago. Tesla Model Y was the best selling sedan in the US in 2023 and 2024, outselling the Toyota Camry. The only models selling more were SUVs or trucks.
Not just the US. The Model Y was the best selling car in the world in 2024, just edging out the Toyota Corolla. I was recently in Vancouver, and it seemed every other car was a Tesla. Oddly enough they are trying to gin up anti-Tesla rage in Canada too, which seems pointless.
It all goes to show that for progressives party politics consumes their whole lives. You can’t just drive a car without being perceived as taking a side specifically in American politics.
some people seem to have lost the plot
https://x.com/clairlemon/status/1902125746631676124
where are the numbers of vehicles sold, vs those returned, or is it largely short selling,
same with those who threaten they are not going to buy US aircraft, who are they going to buy from, the Chinese,
There were Giants in those days.
So goes the story. Perhaps via some Golden Age halo effect we easily ascribe to the past.
But damn. Trump and Musk are throwbacks to such an earlier, more heroic age, yet they live, breathe and walk amongst us, while wielding power on an epic scale.
@miguel cervantes: That’s why we should be a lot slower on the Strange New Respect offered to progressives who seem “reasonable” on one issue. Claire Lehmann, Bari Weiss, John Fetterman, whoever. They did not become different people, and whatever power or influence they gain by being “reasonable” on one issue will be used to work for other issues dear to the Left.
same with those who threaten they are not going to buy US aircraft, who are they going to buy from, the Chinese
Brits, Italians. Russian Army uses some Italian trucks; hope Italy’s not still selling them to Russia but there could be a Big Guy who needs 10%, you know?
well fetterman talks a good game and occasionally does a proper gesture,
to concede anything to the propaganda of the deed, is to lose, one is indelicate to point how futile going through channels was for average Australians, that were caught in the procrustean lockdowns, that mssrs Farrar and Fauci devised, when
the face of the State turned from the Velvet Glove to the mailed Fist,
of course this was almost predictive since the Australians succumbed to the virtue signaling
after Port Arthur
this happened under the so called Liberal govt of John Howard,
there is a rebellious spirit still down under but its less likely to be found in Academia, this is part of what Tim Blair showed us soeme 20 years ago, when his eponymous precept of every absurdity, islamist and collectivist came to be,
Some of the commentators on Yahoo News definitely have Musk Derangement.
Of course, now I am apparently banned from making comments on Yahoo News articles as my old comments disappeared and new ones do shortly after posting.
Hate Has No Home Here! the most ironic sign evah.
surprise,
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/03/19/judge-who-blocked-usaid-cuts-is-long-time-democrat-activist/
@miguel cervanteswell fetterman talks a good game and occasionally does a proper gesture
Hm.
Thanks Bikerdad. I assumed that if it had been record setting, the media would be trumpeting that. Silly me. They’re all Democrat suck-ups, so no! No highlighting the political screw up.
I’ve never had a significant interest in buying an electric car, though I did buy a Prius about 1.5 years ago. I can’t dislike getting 48 to 55 miles/gallon.
A new friend of mine recently took me for about 30 minute ride around town & on the freeway in his Tesla. Maybe a model Y, but I forgot. His was recently upgraded for full autonomous driving which he was showing it off. Personally, I think the idea is a little scary once there are millions of such autonomous vehicles on the road. But this guy is sharp and I was willing to risk a short ride.
It was very impressive. Then near the end, he found an empty piece of straightaway after a stop sign. He didn’t tell me what he was doing, but warned me, “Put your head back against the headrest.” Then he punched it. OMG, I knew the acceleration was amazing, but that was ridiculous.
”The US astronauts stranded on the International Space Station joyfully emerged from their rescue capsule following a dramatic but smooth return to Earth Tuesday…”
Oh, good grief! Et tu, Neo?
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were not stranded on the ISS nor was either of them in need of rescue. There was no rescue capsule or rescue mission. What occurred this past weekend was an ordinary crew rotation with the Expedition 73 crew launching to replace the Expedition 72 crew. The rest of the crew swap will occur in a few weeks when the Soyuz MS-27 crew replaces the Soyuz MS-26 crew.
The only thing political about this crew swap was President Trump personally calling the acting NASA administrator to order the crew handover period shortened from the usual ten days to just two. That will probably affect some of the science experiments at the margins, but I doubt it will be a big deal.
thats why they were up there for nine months, ok then,
I meant some of his Cabinet votes,
they make us rethink the mild regard one might have for them
Boeing launched the starliner without finishing the computer program, for reasons you might understand,
Hey Elon, self driving, wandering, cyber truck Q-ship.
@TommyJay:OMG, I knew the acceleration was amazing, but that was ridiculous.
Electric motors really shine at torque from zero.
I can’t dislike getting 48 to 55 miles/gallon.
It doesn’t always pencil out. I have the hybrid version of a Toyota Highlander. The extra price plus the extra weight more than offsets the savings on better mileage. Not sorry I bought it, I knew that going in. Had it ten years now, it doesn’t seem to age.
There are diesel cars that get 40 – 50 miles per gallon. All else being equal they can be much cheaper than a hybrid assuming you can adjust for trim levels and what not.
People are now putting stickers on their Tesla cars that say things like “F*** Elon” and “I bought this when Elon was cool.” Lame and pathetic, or trying to protect themselves from vandalism and/or violence?