NASA has finally broken its silence about why the agency left two astronauts stranded in space when there were opportunities to bring them home much sooner.
Ken Bowersox, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, said SpaceX ‘helped with a lot of options’ for bringing Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore home, but the final decision came down to costs.
He explained that they discussed adding a mission or bringing the currently docked capsule home early, ‘but we ruled them out pretty quickly just based on how much money we’ve got in our budget.’
NASA’s budget for the fiscal year 2024 was around $30 billion.
It comes after a report found the agency spent millions on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) grants and contracts while Williams and Wilmore have been stuck in space.
Bowersox also admitted that there ‘may have been conversations’ in the White House about delaying the return for political reasons, but he was not part of the discussions.
Elon Musk said earlier this month that Biden rejected his offer to bring Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore home early because it would’ve made Donald Trump ‘look good’ in the run against Kamala Harris.
NASA has final provided reasons for why it did not bring Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams home early from the International Space Station
When NASA officially announced its decision last August, then-NASA administrator Bill Nelson said: ‘I can tell you unequivocally, from a personal standpoint, that politics has not played any part in this decision. It absolutely has nothing to do with it.’
NASA’s admission came during a press conference last Friday where Bill Gerstenmaier, vice president for SpaceX, noted that NASA’s delayed plan allowed the agency ‘to use Sunny and Butch in a very productive manner’ and ‘keep the science going.
Returning the astronauts early would’ve meant fewer bodies on the International Space Station (ISS) to continue research.
Williams and Wilmore are scheduled to depart from the International Space Station (ISS) on March 16 inside a SpaceX capsule that has been docked at the orbiting laboratory since September.
NASA has kept a tight lid on why it did not send another capsule to the ISS after Boeing’s faulty Starliner returned to Earth empty in September, leaving the pair on the ship for more than nine months.
Williams and Wilmore were only supposed to spend eight days on the ISS when they arrived on June 6.
NASA said that SpaceX provided several options to bring them back, but the final decision came down to cost. The agency said it did not have enough in its budget
But technical issues with Starliner prompted NASA to significantly delay their flight home, as the faulty spaceship could not guarantee their safe return.
Friday’s press conference provided the first clear picture of why NASA may not have taken SpaceX up on its offer for an earlier return.
‘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 or bringing uh a capsule home early, those were always options.’
While he explained it all came down to cost, recent reports on NASA’s spending have suggested there was ‘wasteful’ spending while the crew was stranded last year.
An Inspector General report from 2024 highlighted issues with the agency’s contracting system.
It found an ‘inappropriate use of award fees during periods of poor contractor performance for multiple NASA programs and since 2020 questioned more than $77 million of award fees NASA paid for the SLS boosters and engines contracts.’
‘Overall, our investigative work has uncovered improper use of grant funds and fraud, which over the past 3 years resulted in 34 indictments, 24 convictions, 14 suspensions, and 20 debarments, with over $7.7 million in civil settlement fines returned to NASA,’ the report reads.
Elon Musk said this month that he had of offered to bring the astronauts home months ago, but the Biden Administration refused because it would have made Donald Trump ‘look good’
‘In addition, more than $9.6 million in criminal restitution and nearly $33.5 million in civil settlement fines were returned to the US Treasury.’
On top of these funds, a separate report found NASA dished out $20 million in DEI grants and contracts during the Biden administration, according to watchdog Open the Books.
The group said that when Williams and Wilmore were left stranded in space, it decided look closer at its recent activities and spending.
‘With an annual budget of $25 billion, NASA is one of the smaller federal agencies,’ Open the Books shared.
‘But its mission is high risk and high visibility, so it’s crucial to understand its decision making and investments.’
NASA and SpaceX are set to launch four astronauts today to the ISS, who will take the place of Williams and Wilmore.
The stranded astronauts will then spend two days going over what the incoming crew needs to know in order to continue their work.
If all goes to plan, Williams and Wilmore should touch down on Earth on Sunday.
