NASA seemingly snubs Elon Musk despite his SpaceX helping bring back stranded ISS astronauts

WASHINGTON, DC: NASA officials seemingly snubbed Elon Musk after the billionaire’s company SpaceX brought the stranded astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore safely back home on Tuesday, March 18. 

After SpaceX’s Dragon Freedom capsule splashed down successfully off the coast of Florida near Tallahassee, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) thanked SpaceX and President Donald Trump for bringing the astronauts back. 

However, a probable oversight on their part was noticed when the space research wing left out the billionaire businessman from their list of gratitudes.

NASA's Steve Stich fails to thank SpaceX owner Elon Musk after successful splashdown 

Shortly after the SpaceX Dragon’s splash landing at the Gulf of America, NASA officials - led by Steve Stich, the manager of the Commercial Crew program - held a press conference to address various issues, as per Irish Star.

While they thanked SpaceX for quickly adapting to their needs and praised the company, Stitch chose to focus more on the contributions of Boeing in the press conference.

"We’re super grateful for Boeing and their investment," Stich said, adding, "They’re keenly interested in the landing today. They have a watch party going on and are watching Butch and Suni come back," referencing the astronauts’ spending almost 10 months in the ISS after their spaceship malfunctioned in June 2024. 

The Commercial Crew program manager further added that NASA would continue to partner with Boeing and that they are "working hand in hand with Boeing as well on certification of Starliner, getting that vehicle back to flight."

However, notably missing from the speech was any mention of Musk.

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore thanked Elon Musk before their return 

Elon Musk took to his X (formerly Twitter) platform to congratulate SpaceX and NASA for the successful mission.

Sharing SpaceX’s post of the beautiful visage of the splash landing, Musk wrote, "Congratulations to the @SpaceX and @NASA teams for another safe astronaut return," before adding, "Thank you to @POTUS for prioritizing this mission!" 

Williams and Wilmore thanked Musk ahead of their return to Earth. 

While Williams said, "We are coming back before long, so don't make those plans without me. We'll be back before too long," and Wilmore chimed in, "We all have the highest regard for Mr Musk and quite obviously respect and admiration for our President of the United States, Donald Trump."

He continued, "We thank them, we thank all that they do for us, human spaceflight for our country, and we're grateful for the positions they hold."