Space fight! Elon Musk versus the veteran ISS astronauts

2025 has kicked off in a spectacularly bizarre fashion. 

Last month, former ISS commander Andreas Mogensen took to social media platform X to call out SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Mogensen took issue with Musk’s claim that NASA’s Starliner astronauts were stranded aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for “political reasons”.

In a sorry exchange, Musk replied by calling former ISS commander Andreas Mogensen a slur. Shortly afterward, he stated the ISS should be deorbited sooner than the currently scheduled 2030 date. The situation is a sad indictment of Musk’s outsized influence on a sphere that has long been centered on peaceful coexistence. 

Thankfully, though, the wheels keep turning, and the private space sector continues to make impressive strides. Firefly Aerospace made history in February by becoming the first private company to perform a fully successful moon landing. Let’s unpack the details.

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AEROSPACE ENGINEERING SPOTLIGHT

Blue Ghost performs historic lunar landing

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 successfully touched down on the moon at 3:34 am on Sunday, March 2. The company’s Blue Ghost lander delivered a host of NASA science and technology payloads near Mons Latreille, a volcanic feature within the northeasterly Mare Crisium basin. 

In the process, it captured some of the most impressive footage from the lunar surface since the Apollo era. Shortly after the landing, Firefly shared a video of Blue Ghost approaching its landing site. Just before it touches down, a cloud of lunar dust is ejected into the surrounding space.

The Blue Ghost lander touched down in an upright and stable position. Several US landers have flown to the Moon in recent months. Blue Ghost was the first to land without issues. Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander, for example, touched down in a sideways position.

Shortly after Blue Ghost’s successful touchdown NASA acting Administrator Janet Petro said the achievement “demonstrates how NASA and American companies are leading the way in space exploration for the benefit of all”. The lander carried a total of 10 NASA science and technology instruments. These will operate on the lunar surface for about one lunar day or approximately 14 Earth days.

Blue Ghost’s instruments have already broken records, though. The lander’s Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment successfully tracked signals from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) at a record-breaking distance of 246,000 miles. This demonstrated that the same positioning technology used on Earth can also function on the Moon.

NASA is looking to the future of space exploration with its Artemis program. Blue Ghost was part of the space agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. This initiative is paving the way for future lunar habitats near the lunar south pole. Those, in turn, will serve as a stepping stone for Mars colonization and the expansion of human civilization into deep space.

AERO BULLETIN

Space headache 2025: A timeline of Starliner astronaut ‘rescue’ claims

NASA’s Starliner astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, are finally set to come home at the end of this month.

They initially flew to the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2024. Problems with Starliner’s thrusters meant that NASA flew the capsule back without its crew. The Starliner Crewed Flight Test (CFT) mission was initially meant to last eight days. At the time of writing, Wilmore and Williams have been aboard the ISS for roughly nine months. 

Were they stranded aboard the ISS? Could they have flown home sooner, if not for political reasons? Let’s take a look at the timeline.

Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT)

NASA’s Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams flew to the ISS aboard the first crewed Boeing Starliner crew capsule on June 5, 2024. They were originally scheduled to stay in space for eight days, but they have now been at the station for nine months. 

Starliner thruster issues: NASA asks SpaceX to return astronauts

During Starliner’s trip to the ISS during the Crew Flight Test (CFT), NASA noticed issues with the capsule’s thrusters. As a precaution, they decided to fly the spacecraft back to Earth empty. 

In September 2024, NASA decided to launch its scheduled Crew-9 mission – aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft  – with two astronauts instead of four. This was so Williams and Wilmore could return at the end of Crew-9’s regular rotation in February. However, delays to the launch of Crew-10 saw the return date pushed back to April.

Were Wilmore and Williams stranded in space?

A series of hyperbolic headlines quickly highlighted the fact that Wilmore and Williams were “stranded” in space – these clearly veered from reality to evoke Hollywood sci-fi. In truth, the two astronauts have repeatedly stated that they do not feel stranded.

Trump and Musk’s “rescue” mission

During a Fox News interview last month, Musk and Donald Trump spoke about the Starliner astronaut situation. Musk claimed the Starliner astronauts “were left up there for political reasons.” He also claimed he offered the Biden administration to return the astronauts months before, and they refused.  

Wilmore’s diplomatic response

NASA has now pushed the two astronauts’ return forward to February, likely influenced by Trump’s rhetoric. The US president has referred to the return of the Starliner astronauts as a “rescue mission”. In truth, Trump and Musk’s “rescue” of the astronauts will see them return roughly two weeks before they were intended to fly back to Earth. 

During a recent live interview from the ISS, Starliner astronaut Butch Wilmore was asked about the situation. He said, “from my standpoint, politics has not played into [the extended stay] at all.” However, he also contradicted this statement by diplomatically stating he believes Musk’s recent claims.

What we think

Musk is undeniably a brilliant mind and his work with SpaceX has propelled the space industry forward. Still, it’s worth noting he has a long history of making baseless and exaggerated claims without providing evidence. Did the conversation between Musk and the Biden administration really take place? It may well have done. Still, seeing how Musk responded to Mogensen, it’s hard not to think of the boy who cried wolf.