Elon Musk sparked a new controversy by insulting a European astronaut on X, the treating “retarded” after being accused of lie.
Elon Musk, director of SpaceX and close advisor to the President of the United States, violently took a astronaut on Thursday, February 20, after being accused of having distorted reality during a recent interview. During an exchange with Donald Trump broadcast this week on Fox News, he said that American astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, blocked in orbit for more than eight months, had been stuck for political reasons.
A declaration immediately qualified as “lie” by Andreas Mogensen, Danish astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA), in a message published on X, the social network belonging to the billionaire. “You are completely retarded (…) Their return has been pushed back for political reasons. Idi.” , tweeted Elon Musk.
You are fully retarded.
SpaceX COULD Have Brought Them Back Several MONTHS AGO.
I offered this directly to the Biden Administration and they refused.
Return was Pushed Back for Political Reasons.
Silly.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) FEBRUARY 20, 2025
The tech magnate said in his message that SpaceX could have repatriated astronauts for “several months”, adding that he had made the proposal directly to the Biden administration, which would have declined the offer. Andreas Mogensen, himself a former passenger of a mission operated by the company of Elon Musk, reacted: “You know as well as me as Butch and Suni will come back with the CREW 9 mission, as planned since last September”.
Dysfunctions in the Boeing vessel
Scheduled to last eight days, their mission has transformed into a stay of several months aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since their arrival last June. This extension is due to dysfunctions of the vessel Starliner de Boeing, used for their transport. After numerous technical tests, NASA finally opted for a return of the without crew in the summer and entrusted to SpaceX the responsibility for repatriating the two astronauts.
In September, the mission CREW-9 De SpaceX took off towards the ISS with only two passengers instead of the four initially planned, in order to reserve places for their return. This is now conditioned by the arrival of the mission CREW-10whose departure, postponed in December by NASA and SpaceX, has just been advanced.
Although they repeated that they did not feel abandoned by the authorities, their situation has taken on a political dimension when Donald Trump, now returned to power, accused his predecessor of having “abandoned”.