Here’s an announcement from the US President from sometime around February this year, 2025:
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!!!
and here’s a reply from Elon Musk:
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.
These statements stuck in my mind and I’ve thought about them easily a dozen times over the last six or so months. I was shocked to hear that a country had ditched its astronauts in space, so I looked into it a little.
The statements it turns out, are propaganda. That was my conclusion in February and it remains the same today. There were times between when I questioned if it were just political spin but no matter how I looked at them, they were not.
Spin, is when you frame an event in the most favourable light possible. There’s a careful choice of language, you use positive words and you’re selective with the facts you present. Spin is gloss, it’s selective storytelling.
Something becomes propaganda when it’s designed to manipulate or persuade. You appeal to emotions rather than reason and you can exaggerate and even misinform.
There is overlap as you can see, but the problem with propaganda is that it can promote a different reality - even a false one. It offers a simple truth which discourages questioning.
We know already, there are no simple answers to complex problems and that we should be very wary of people who say otherwise on almost any topic.
Let’s look at the facts about this subject
5th June 2024 - Two astronauts set off in a Boeing Starliner capsule to the ISS. They plan to stay 8 days.
5/6th June 2024 - There are technical problems. The Boeing Starliner docks with ISS on second attempt. NASA and Boeing begin work on the problems. Neither know when the Starliner will be safe-enough to allow crew to return to earth.
September 2024 - No crew-safe solution can be found. Boeings Starliner capsule is sent back to earth without crew. Astronauts have no immediate ride home and begin a longer term deployment. The sort of thing they prepare and are all trained for.
28th September - A planned SpaceX missioned called ‘Crew 9’ sends two new astronauts rather than four to the ISS onboard its “Freedom” capsule. It docks, leaving two spare seats for the next crew-swap, known as “Crew 10” in February 25.
January 2025 - Donald Trump becomes president
February 2025 - “Crew 10” mission delayed. Donald Trump and Elon Musk post their messages.
14th March 2025 - “Crew 10” mission sends 4 new astronauts to the ISS onboard its “endurance” capsule.
18th March 2025 - The “Crew 9” mission returns onboard “freedom” with the two astronauts from September plus the original two that went up in June onboard the Starliner.
That’s it.
The astronauts were never abandoned. The solution to bring them home was planned before Trump got into office. It was always being done by SpaceX. Elon isn’t going to the ISS. The astronauts and NASA are completely prepared and as such are dealing with the situation. It is not ‘terrible’.
So what is this post about? It’s about bullshit and opportunity and risk.
The bullshit is those two messages. That doesn’t mean they don’t contain any facts, it does mean they present a bullshit false narrative. They are propaganda.
The opportunity is to challenge propaganda by looking for the fact. This is difficult because accuracy takes time and propaganda doesn’t need to be accurate to be effective. Not easy.
The risk, is that we don’t close the gap. That bullshit goes unchecked so frequently that it becomes normal. We must challenge; faster, more accurately and hold the people that lead us to account. If we don’t, we can’t expect them to anything that they don’t already want to.