NASA has finally disclosed the reason it left two astronauts stranded in space for nine months despite proposed avenues to bring them home sooner.
The final decision came down to sheer cost, said Ken Bowersox, NASA's associate administrator for space operations.
The astronauts are set to depart from the International Space Station (ISS) March 16 by way of a SpaceX capsule that has been docked at the space station since September.
They arrived at the space station on June 6 for what was supposed to be a short stay of eight days — but their Starliner spaceship turned out to be faulty and unfit for the flight home.
Bowersox speaking at a press conference acknowledged Elon Musk’s SpaceX “helped with a lot of options” for a prompt return home for Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore — but ultimately, it was just too expensive.
“We ruled them out pretty quickly just based on how much money we've got in our budget,” said Bowersox.
The agency’s budget was $30 billion for the 2024 fiscal year, according to the Daily Mail.
The outlet reported NASA spent millions on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs while the astronauts were hung out to dry in space.
“The SpaceX folks helped us folks — helped us with a lot of options on how we would bring Sunny and Butch home on Dragon [a capsule] in a contingency,' said Bowersox.
“They've been so helpful this last year, coming up with those options. When it comes to adding on missions or bringing a capsule home early, those were always options.”
Speaking at the same press conference on Friday, SpaceX VP Bill Gerstenmaier said that NASA made the most of the astronauts’ delayed stay at the ISS and were sure “to use Sunny and Butch in a very productive manner.”
He said it was advantageous to have them continue their research while they were otherwise stranded in the orbiting laboratory.
While former President Joe Biden was still in office, Musk had offered to bring Williams and Wilmore home through his own space company — his idea had no traction, however,
Bowersox said there “may have been conversations” among the Biden administration about how it would make Donald Trump “look good” to have SpaceX bring the astronauts home from the International Space Station as he squared off against former VP Kamala Harris ahead of the November election.
In August, then-NASA administrator Bill Nelson insisted “politics has not played any part in this decision.”
“It absolutely has nothing to do with it,” said Nelson.
