The administration of former US President Joe Biden has stopped Elon Musk's intentions to conduct a rescue mission to save astronauts stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) before the 2024 presidential election.
Musk stated this on the podcast of American comedian and TV host Joe Rogan.
“I was told that the White House had issued instructions that there should be no rescue attempts before the election“, Musk said.
The host suggested that the Biden administration may have prohibited Musk from attempting a rescue mission because it would be considered bad political behavior. The SpaceX CEO explained: “They didn't directly say that it would be bad political behavior, they just made it clear that they were not interested in any rescue operations before the election.“
Musk noted that he was not surprised by the decision, as he has been on bad terms with the Biden administration due to his assistance with US President Donald Trump's election campaign.
On March 19, SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth, along with the Crew-9 mission crew. It included Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov and NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore, Sunita Williams and Nick Hague. Wilmore and Williams arrived at the ISS as part of the first crewed mission of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, which was launched by Boeing on June 5, 2024.
They were scheduled to remain in orbit until June 14. Later, due to spacecraft malfunctions involving the failure of several maneuvering engines during docking, the return date was postponed first to June 18, then to June 26, and then indefinitely. Ultimately, NASA decided that the astronauts would return to Earth as part of the Crew-9 mission in the spring of 2025.