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?
==
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.
==
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.
==
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.
==
How much you want to bet they found other officials who confirmed it but filed that bit of information away?
==
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?
The threats against Tesla owners fit a reasonable definition of terrorism, I would think. I mean as opposed to the definition that it’s anything that makes progressives afraid.
Niketas,
I’ve been a fan of efficient diesels for some time, but the enviro-lunatic fringe has made it their mission to torpedo any such automaker aspirations. They keep hammering the NOx emission standards lower and lower. Plus, there are particulate & other standards.
I recall a VW diesel Polo that showed up at our local racetrack more than a decade ago. Only sold in Europe at the time. They claimed something like 60 mpg.
Many hybrid makers have looked at a little diesel for recharging the batteries, but they always say that the emissions issues are too severe.
The Prius is relatively small & lightweight and fairly aerodynamic in shape. I usually try to drive it for some efficiency boosts, but it’s also kinda fun to drive it hard sometimes. The suspension and handling is surprisingly good, though the wheels and tires are weak for sporting. The acceleration is not terrible, if you are willing to floor it. With the low drag, you can drive it at 80 mph on the freeway & still get pretty great mileage.
The brakes are interesting. I can feel the different modes and usually try to get regenerative braking going. I live at the top of a very steep hill, & unfortunately the battery pack fills up well before I get to the bottom on a descent. I bought mine used, and I actually think there is a flaw or bug in the way the brakes work. Not severe enough to warrant throwing money at the problem, but it’s not pleasant for a guy who likes to drive. I might sell it for a new one sometime.
There’s a Tesla parked down the street from me, its owner a solid conservative Trump voter.
I hope the female space station crew member does not have serious health problems. She’s in her late fifties and at that age already losing bone mass when on the earth’s surface.
@mkent
Et tu, mkent?
It seems like your often justifiable issues with Trump and Musk on things like Ukraine (where we share broadly similar outlooks even if not always in detail) seem to be spilling over.
This is goddamn absurd.
They were scheduled to stay at the ISS 8 Days. They were kept up there this long due to a host of things, many of which were not any one partisan faction’s fault like malfunctions, but many others of which were.
This was no “ordinary crew rotation”, even if theoretically the methods and equipment for it were so.
And even if I granted Brandon and co the benefit of the doubt that Musk is not saying the truth, this still points to a hideously botched and mistimed stay on the ISS that Musk and SpaceX played a role in helping to resolve in concert with NASA.
Firstly, the crew handover period being shortened only makes sense given the effects of low gravity on the human biology. The two astronauts held up remarkably well and are in decent spirits but they are way past their return date and did not deserve to have more undue burden placed on them, which might exacerbate health issues down the line. Call that “political” if you will but it is also partially a moral and humane concern.
Secondly: all of this assumes that the narratives and claims from NPR and the Biden White House are true, which for very obvious reasons I am skeptical of. And if we are in the game of “cite tangentially related sources for support” like NPR is I can point to at least one astronaut who did consider the delay being political in nature. Which would fit in with much of what Biden and his Camarilla have done before.
https://nypost.com/2025/03/11/us-news/us-astronauts-stuck-because-biden-wouldnt-risk-disaster-ex-spaceman/
And I say this as someone who would actually defend the decisions by all parties to delay the return IF they were to avoid disaster, precisely because with space ops like this you only get one shot and the margins and stakes are more than sky high, so it is better to deal with long term exposure to low G and the lingering effects that’ll have on health than to speed things up and risk suffering death in the likes of a Challenger Explosion type event or some other mess.
But that still does nothing to change the fact that this absolutely was not just another crew rotation mission, and attempting to claim otherwise is kneejerk, ignorant, and frankly dumb.
It also does nothing to change the fact that we have far more reasons to suspect this was not a decision made purely on the engineering and scientific metrics than just “Musk and Trump said so and we know those two have never, ever lied or stretched the truth ever.”
For what it is worth the Astronauts themselves seem to be in good humor and fairly good health and at least publicly have not blamed anybody on political grounds, so I am willing to believe this was just an engineering screwup and caution rather than something nastier or politically shaded. But again, if I wished to argue otherwise I have grounds to do so. And there is no grounds to argue this was a perfectly mundane crew rotation.
Bikerdad and TommyJay:
“The longest time a woman has spent on the International Space Station (ISS) for a single mission is 328 days, achieved by NASA astronaut Christina Koch. She launched to the ISS on March 14, 2019, and returned to Earth on February 6, 2020, surpassing the previous record held by Peggy Whitson, who spent 288 days on the ISS from 2016 to 2017. Koch’s extended stay contributed valuable data on the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body.” – Grok
@TommyJay:I bought mine used, and I actually think there is a flaw or bug in the way the brakes work.
Is that the two-step braking maybe? First regenerative braking and then the friction brakes kicking in? That was something I was warned to expect for mine…
Because of the regenerative braking the friction braking system is usually smaller than you’d expect for the size of the vehicle.
Now in the future the next space platform should have some centrifugal arrangement because low gravity is counterproductive on long trips
RE: UFOs and NHIs—To quote the title of a formerly SECRET, famous old 1948 Air Force document about UFOs—here is one possible “Estimate of the situation”
Various high level U.S. government intelligence and military officials have already admitted that UFOs are real, and some have also said that NHIs are real, and are interacting with us humans.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that what these high level, experienced, and presumably “read in” to some extent officials, some of them even ”experiencers”—who should know—have attested to is accurate.
What position does that leave us, the human race, in?
Well, I’d say that we humans are faced with a massive “force majeure” situation, with the NHIs and their UFOs apparently holding all of the cards.
From the evidence, do we have superior technology?
Any permanent settlements in our Solar System other than on Earth?
Are we able to routinely and confidently travel with ease throughout our solar system?
Do we have a planetary defense grid in place to protect the mother planet, Earth?
Do we have system wide sensors deployed to detect any intruders?
Do we have a fleet of space worthy military vessels, and them out patrolling the boundaries of our Solar System, and able to respond to such intruders?
No, No, No, No, No, and No.*
Well then, in the face of any NHIs able to traverse between solar systems, or perhaps between other planes of existence, dimensions, time streams, or universes, we relatively primitive, technologically deficient, and essentially planet-bound humans are pretty well screwed; helpless, ready-made victims.
And perhaps that could be the reason for all of the government secrecy.
The government does not want to admit that, given this situation, they and we are helpless, and that, should predatory NHIs show up, the human race is well and truly screwed.
Perhaps, then, the government’s 80 some years of secret crash retrievals and attempts at reverse engineering NHI technology are their attempts to gain technology which will give us some hope of becoming something more that just vulnerable, earth-bound primitives; the powerless victims of the first interstellar looter or predatory star system’s vehicles which appear in Earth orbit.
* Of note is the fact that scientist, engineer (and science fiction author) Dr. Travis S.Taylor, whose career involved work for NASA and DOD, and who is currently the chief scientist investigating the “high strangeness” events at Skinwalker Ranch, was the author of the 2006 book,
“An Introduction to Planetary Defense: A Study of Modern Warfare As Applied to Extraterrestrial Invasion”
This book billed as a first serious look at some ideas about what it would take to repel such an extraterrestrial invasion.
Of course, there can be all sorts of other types of “invasion” other than those involving mostly nuts and bolts vehicles.
For anybody not paying attention, recall this from last August
NASA will return Boeing’s Starliner to Earth without astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard the spacecraft, the agency announced Saturday. The uncrewed return allows NASA and Boeing to continue gathering testing data on Starliner during its upcoming flight home, while also not accepting more risk than necessary for its crew.
Wilmore and Williams, who flew to the International Space Station in June aboard NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, have been busy supporting station research, maintenance, and Starliner system testing and data analysis, among other activities.
They were on a crewed test flight of the Boeing Starliner which IMO failed spectacularly because Boeing and NASA weren’t willing to bring them down in the same craft that brought them up.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-decides-to-bring-starliner-spacecraft-back-to-earth-without-crew/
GEOGRAPHIC NEWS : “splashed down off the coast of Tallahassee, Fla., aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule”.
OFF THE COAST OF TALLAHASSEE ? iT AIN’T ON THE WATER !
Latest: https://babylonbee.com/news/judge-orders-astronauts-be-returned-to-space-station
I’d like to know in what kind of overall physical and mental condition these two formerly stranded astronauts returned to Earth.
Any major deterioration caused by their unplanned, far too long stay which cannot be remedied?
If there is any the blame falls on Biden.
TommyJay and Niketas Choniates:
I have yet to see anyone at all present a viable, defensible case for favoring a 0-60 mph acceleration in, what, 5 or so seconds. Impressive, arguably–yes. But as to safety concerns, such a rapid velocity increase on a highway, with its resulting unforeseen changes in total driving context is almost certainly a dangerous threat to other, nearby drivers. I would want no part of it, and would be loathe to drive around any area where other people indulge it.
@betsybounds: I would want no part of it, and would be loathe to drive around any area where other people indulge it.
If people regularly drove that way, yes that would be dangerous. But having a vehicle with the capability of being driven that way is not unsafe. You might need to accelerate in an emergency, you might need to tow something.
2024 F-150s can come with torque ratings between 265 and 510 ft-lbs. A Tesla Model Y is within that range, and weighs about as much as an F-150. A Model Y and an F-150 Raptor have comparable 0-60 times.
There are lot of vehicles on the road that can accelerate like that, far more than you ever see people driving that way, and there is legitimate need for a vehicle with the capability.
The logistics involved to launch a spacecraft into orbit to rendezvous with another craft in low earth orbit are enormous. There isn’t such a thing as a simple mission. There is video of the dock up that is amazing. Also keep in mind that the launch of the SpaceX Dragon Freedom was temporarily delayed by weather, which then requires another round of calculations.
My F-150 has 5liter V8. I believe it is the engine they use in the mustang. Its acceleration from 45 to 80 going up a hill is … impressive. I can pass any vehicle with ease.