Starliner astronauts

As you may recall, last year Boeing launched two astronauts to the International Space Station. The spacecraft had an issue and had to be returned without the astronauts.  

The two astronauts were prepared for a week in space, but it went to many weeks, then months, and now is coming around on a year.  While some of the time, they've "twiddled their thumbs," they have made the most of their time and have remained fairly upbeat.

The story goes that at some point in late summer, NASA made a decision to retrieve the astronauts using a SpaceX Dragon capsule that would be launched empty.  This was never intended to be something done with a sense of urgency; the plan was ALWAYS to send that mission up in about March of 2025.  The astronauts were aware of this, and so were we.

But the reporting on this was confusing, and somehow it appeared that the mission kept slipping and maybe they'd get a rescue soon.  Then they were referred to as "stranded" which they really aren't (and worst case, they could sit in a proverbial rumble seat of another returning rocket).

Anyway, Elon Musk gets elected ... I mean T-rump get elected and Musk has oversight into NASA's doings.  T-rump says "we need to get them home!" and Musk responds on his stupid social platform saying "The @POTUS has asked @SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the @Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so. Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long," 

Which is disingenuous and stupid.  See my previous comment about how this was the plan all along.  But gotta pass blame and refer to them as stranded.  

And the media - without a moment of thought - just runs with it.  Sad!