Danish astronaut Andreas "Andy" Mogensen has publicly refuted claims made by Elon Musk regarding the status of NASA astronauts Patch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Musk had suggested in a Fox News interview that the astronauts were stranded due to "political reasons" related to former President Joe Biden's administration.

Mogensen, who has spent time aboard the ISS on two occasions, labeled Musk's assertions as "lies" and criticized his characterizations of the media's reliability.

In his response, Mogensen took to social media platform X to emphasize that Musk's claims do not align with the reality of the situation.

He stated, "What a lie.

And from someone who complains about the lack of honesty in mainstream media."

In reaction to Mogensen's remarks, Musk responded by labeling him as "completely mentally challenged." Musk claimed that his company, SpaceX, had the capability to retrieve the astronauts weeks earlier and stated that he had made an offer to the Biden administration to facilitate this, although he did not provide details of such an offer.

Both Wilmore and Williams were sent to the ISS in June aboard Boeing's CST-100 Starliner for an eight-day test mission, aimed at validating the spacecraft's performance.

However, issues with the vehicle's engines resulted in NASA deciding to return the Starliner without a crew.

Consequently, NASA tasked SpaceX with the responsibility of bringing the veteran astronauts back to Earth.

NASA later confirmed plans for Wilmore and Williams to return on the Crew-9 mission, which launched in September with a reduced crew complement of two instead of four, to accommodate their return.

Originally, the astronauts' return to Earth was scheduled for February but has since been postponed to March due to delays in SpaceX preparing the Crew-10 vehicle.

While Musk insinuated that an alternative rescue plan could have been enacted sooner, he did not disclose what that plan entailed.

Mogensen, who flew on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in 2023, reiterated that the return of Wilmore and Williams was planned to occur with the Crew-9 mission, stating, "Elon, I have admired you for a long time and what you have accomplished, particularly with SpaceX and Tesla.

You know as I do that Patch and Suni will return with crew 9, as has been the plan since last September, and no rescue ship will be sent to bring them back home.

They will return on the Dragon capsule, which has been at the ISS since September."

The ongoing dialogue illustrates the challenges and complexities surrounding human spaceflight and geopolitical narratives that can emerge from such missions.