US President Donald Trump on Friday said that he will pay the stranded NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore out of his own pocket for their overtime in space. He revealed he was unaware that the astronauts would not get any overtime for their unexpected extended stay on the International Space Station, despite “what they had to go through”.
“Well, nobody’s ever mentioned this to me. If I have to, I’ll pay it out of my own pocket. I’ll get it for them,” Trump said when being told during an interview with Fox News that NASA had agreed to cover merely $5 per day in incidentals for the crew, which amounts to roughly $1,430 in total for their 286 days in space.
“Nobody ever mentioned this to me,” the US President responded in surprise. “Is that all? That’s not a lot, for what they had to go through.”
SpaceX Crew-10 was launched to the ISS making Williams and Wilmore’s return to Earth possible after almost nine months. Their capsule splashed down in the Gulf of America off Tallahassee, Florida on Wednesday where they were greeted by dolphins.
“Even though they’re in the capsule up there, the body starts to deteriorate after nine or 10 months and gets really bad after 14,15 months, with the bones and the blood and all of the things that you’ve been reporting on very well,” Trump added.
Trump Hails Musk For Bringing Back Astronauts
Trump then went on to thank Tech billionaire Elon Musk whose company SpaceX launched the mission that made the return of the stranded astronauts possible.
“I want to thank Elon Musk, by the way, because imagine if we didn’t have him. You know, there’s only so long even though they’re in the capsule up there, the body starts to deteriorate after nine or ten months. It gets really bad after 14 or 15 months… And if we don’t have Elon, they could be stuck there for a long time. Who else is going to get them? I just want to thank him,” he said.
White House recently blamed Joe Biden administration’s “lack of courage and urgency” as the reason behind the astronauts’ delayed return. Elon Musk also blamed “political reasons” for the crew being abandoned in space. He said he had offered to bring back the crew, but Biden had rejected it.
Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore had travelled to the ISS in June last year for an eight-day misison, but the Boeing Starliner faced technical issues due to which their return had to be delayed for almost nine months.
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