What Trump said about them is sickening.

I absolutely hate this headline. They NEVER were stranded. Let me repeat. They NEVER were stranded in the ISS.

They went up to the station to test the Boeing Starliner capsule, which because of issues in the thrusters during the approach to the station, was deemed too risky to send the two astronauts back. The capsule returned empty, and it could have brought the astronauts with no issues, but NASA opted for safer than sorry, avoiding to repeat the Columbia space shuttle disaster.

But even then, Butch and Suni were not stranded. The capsule of the ongoing crew expedition was prepared with two extra seats in case of emergency evacuation, and the two astronauts were enrolled into the next crew expedition, with the Crew 9 capsule carrying only two out of four crew members, as the two in the station replaced two which would have been launched from Earth.

Elon offered to launch an empty capsule to fetch the two “stranded” astronauts, for the measley sum of $500 Million, but the Biden administration deemed it cheaper to have the astronauts to take the place of two others from the Crew 9 expedition, which in my opinion is a great display of government efficiency.

Now, the next expedition had their launch postponed, but Butch and Suni are not stranded. They are just waiting the people of the next expedition arrive before they leave. In case of any problem, even if they get home sick, they can get the four astronauts of Crew 9 into their capsule and return to Earth.

They are not stranded. As an analogy, right now they are waiting the people of the next shift arrive before they leave to not let the shop empty.