By John Q. Hosedrinker 
Following a nine-month unplanned stay aboard the International Space Station due to technical issues with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams returned to Earth via SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. They refuted claims of abandonment, emphasizing the mission’s planned nature and the collaborative efforts to resolve the situation. While acknowledging mistakes made by all parties involved, including themselves, the astronauts prioritized learning from the experience to improve future space missions. Their focus shifted from assigning blame to rectifying the identified shortcomings.
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Fox News’s attempt to pin the blame for the astronauts’ extended stay on the International Space Station on President Biden spectacularly failed. The narrative they attempted to push—that the astronauts were “stranded” and subsequently “rescued” by Elon Musk—completely ignored the straightforward reality of the situation.
The astronauts weren’t stranded at all. They had multiple escape capsules available, both Soyuz and Dragon, providing ample opportunities for an earlier return to Earth. NASA’s decision to delay their return was a calculated one, prioritizing efficient crew rotations and avoiding disruptions to ongoing collaborations with international space agencies, such as the seat-swap exchange with Roscosmos. Bringing them back early would have created unnecessary complications and potentially jeopardized future missions.
The timing of their return, coinciding with a pre-planned mission, further undermined the “rescue” narrative. This meticulously planned return was not a last-minute scramble, but a continuation of a schedule established long before the current administration. The implication that a heroic intervention by Elon Musk or Donald Trump was necessary is simply untrue; the return was part of pre-existing protocols.
The SpaceX Starliner, which some attempted to portray as a rescue vehicle, was not involved in the astronauts’ return. It was a separate mission, and its unrelated technical issues were leveraged to fuel the false narrative of a Biden-caused crisis. The entire storyline was contrived, and the available options for the astronauts returning earlier were conveniently ignored.
Fox News’s insistence on blaming Biden for a situation entirely outside of his control highlights their desperation to create a controversy where none exists. The attempt to involve Trump and Musk in a heroic rescue, when the reality was a carefully planned NASA operation, is disingenuous at best and indicative of a reckless disregard for factual reporting.
The astronauts themselves, demonstrably intelligent and level-headed individuals, avoided being drawn into the political spectacle. They refused to engage in the blame game, thus implicitly rejecting the Fox News narrative. Their silence speaks volumes, implicitly acknowledging the absurdity of the entire manufactured crisis.
The persistence of the “rescue” narrative on Fox News and other right-wing media outlets showcases the extent to which some believe their own manufactured realities. The blatant disregard for factual information and the deliberate manipulation of events to support a pre-ordained political agenda is alarming. It reveals a deep-seated tendency to prioritize partisan loyalty over truth and reason, even in the face of undeniable evidence to the contrary.
The entire episode serves as a clear example of how easily misinformation can be spread and how difficult it can be to counter with factual information, especially when deeply ingrained biases are at play. Fox News’s failure to get the astronauts to blame Biden for a non-existent crisis exposed the hollowness of their political maneuvering and the desperation behind their attempts at manipulating public opinion. The astronauts’ professionalism and refusal to engage in such political grandstanding further underscored the absurdity of the situation. It was a strategic communication win for the astronauts and a devastating demonstration of the failures of responsible journalism at Fox News.
Ultimately, the Fox News attempt to scapegoat Biden was a complete failure, exposed by the astronauts’ own conduct and the clear timeline of events. This incident highlights not only the blatant bias of certain media outlets, but also the strength of character and commitment to professional standards demonstrated by the astronauts themselves. Their refusal to become political pawns ultimately disproved the fabricated narrative, leaving Fox News with a completely unfounded and ultimately embarrassing attempt at political point-scoring.