Fmr. Astronaut on Fox News Blasts ‘The Five’ for Politicizing Rescue: ‘The Safest Thing to Do Was Leave’ the Astronauts in Space

BAIER: “This is 286 days. They were supposed to go up for eight, nine days, but problems with the Boeing Starliner prevented them, and then there was an effort to get them down pledged by President Trump at the joint address to Congress. Scott Kelly, just quickly about the mental toll it takes, perhaps, when you’re up there for that long — you were supposed to be there for that long, they were not. That’s a long time and there’s a mental side to it, too.”
Kelly: “Bret, before I talk about that, let me say something. I was watching your previous program, ‘The Five,’ and they’re talking about abandoned — they were stranded by President Biden. That is not true. They have had a spacecraft up there since September that was going to bring them home. They have always had a ride home. And the decision to keep them up there had nothing to do with politics, it was just the fact that you need crew members to operate the space station and they were the two that were there, and you had to send up a vehicle with two empty seats, so the safest thing to do was to just leave them there. But they weren’t stranded. They always had a ride home. Now, they were only supposed to be there for eight days, so to answer your question, yeah, it’s mentally challenging to go on a mission where you think it might be eight days, you know it could be longer because it’s the first flight of a vehicle and sometimes there are problems, and NASA made the right choice to keep them up there longer, and that could be tough mentally. But I’ve known Butch and Suni before any of us were astronauts and they’re very experienced naval aviators, test pilots. And even though it might have been a challenge, I’m sure they rose to the occasion just like many astronauts would do, if not all. But at the same time, I’m pretty sure they are really happy to be home.”
BAIER: “Yeah.”