In what must of been a welcome and very cool site for the astronauts returning to Earth after nine long, unexpected months spent stranded in the International Space Station (ISS) thanks to a malfunctioning Boeing spaceship, the astronauts who were rescued by SpaceX were greeted when they splashed down in the Gulf of America by a pod of dolphins.
As background, SpaceX was chosen to send up its Dragon capsule to the ISS to rescue the astronauts. They had been left on the ISS for nine long months when their Boeing test ship malfunctioned, and President Trump alleges that the spacefarers were left on the station because President Biden “abandoned” them.
Shortly after his election, President Trump announced that the two astronauts would be rescued by SpaceX. Posting that on Truth Social, the president said, “I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to “go get” the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden Administration. They have been waiting for many months on @Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon!!!”
Then, on Sunday, March 16, NASA announced that the SpaceX Dragan had managed to dock with the ISS, though NASA avoided mentioning the stranded astronaut problem. In that press release, it said, “NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov entered the International Space Station shortly after opening the hatches between the space station and the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at 1:35 a.m. EDT. McClain, Ayers, Onishi, and Peskov were welcomed by the Expedition 72 crew, including NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Don Petitt, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts Aleksandr Gorbunov, Alexey Ovchinin, and Ivan Vagner.”
It was on Tuesday, March 18 that the SpaceX Dragon spaceship returned to Earth and splashed down in the Gulf of America. Announcing the momentous news on X, SpaceX said, “Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, Nick, Suni, Butch, and Aleks!” Elon then quote-tweeted the company’s announcement and said, “Congratulations to the @SpaceX and @NASA teams for another safe astronaut return! Thank you to @POTUS for prioritizing this mission!”
Posters on X quickly noted that the capsule, when it splashed down, was surrounded by dolphins. Conservative X personality Greg Price, for example, wrote, “Astronauts who were stuck in space for nine months splashing down in the Gulf of America and immediately being surrounded by a pack of dolphins is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.”
Similarly, another poster, Dr. Ben Braddock, noted that the dolphins were in a pod and greeted the astronauts rescued by Elon and Trump, saying: “A pod of dolphins in the Gulf of America greeting the astronauts who the democrats abandoned in space but were rescued by Elon Musk on the orders of President Donald Trump.” Watch the awesome moment here:
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Speaking with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity about the splash down and delayed return of the astronauts, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said that they could have been rescued months ago, but former President Biden didn’t want to rely on SpaceX. He told Hannity, “We definitely offered to return the astronauts earlier. There’s no question about that.”
He added, commenting on their extra time in space thanks to Boeing’s failure, “The astronauts were only supposed to be there for eight days, and they’ve been there for almost ten months. So, obviously, that doesn’t make any sense. SpaceX could have brought the astronauts back after a few months at most, and we made that offer to the Biden administration. It was rejected for political reasons, and that’s just a fact.” Watch Musk and Hannity here: