Elon Musk has had a heated exchange with famed astronaut Andreas Mogensen who accused has him of lying over claims that two NASA astronauts had been “left” in space.
Speaking during a pre-recorded interview with US President Donald Trump on Fox News, Mr Musk alleged the astronauts had been “left up there for political reasons” – a claim Mr Mogensen denounced as a “lie”.
The SpaceX CEO said he was working to “accelerate” the return of NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station (ISS) at the president’s “instruction”.
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Mr Musk, who also leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an advisory department under the Trump administration, said the astronauts’ return had been “postponed to a ridiculous degree”.
Mr Trump, meanwhile, pointed the finger at former President Joe Biden, as he said: “They got left in space”.
Dutch astronaut Andreas Mogensen shared a clip of the Fox News interview on X and said: “What a lie.
“And from someone who complains about lack of honesty from the mainstream media.”
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Mr Musk retorted by calling the astronaut an “idiot”.
“SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago,” Mr Musk wrote.
“I OFFERED THIS DIRECTLY to the Biden administration and they refused. Return WAS pushed back for political reasons. Idiot.”
Mr Mogensen replied saying: “Elon, I have long admired you and what you have accomplished, especially at SpaceX and Tesla.
“You know as well as I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since last September.
“Even now, you are not sending up a rescue ship to bring them home. They are returning on the Dragon capsule that has been on ISS since last September.”
There were no further replies from Mr Musk.
Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams, who have been on the ISS since June 2024, originally planned to go to space for just eight days but got stuck on the station after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft started experiencing problems.
Their scheduled February return was pushed back once more in December because of delays with a SpaceX rocket.
The astronauts are expected to return to Earth next month.