[Denote6737]

What about all the other things. For example the crew dragon was docked back in september waiting for return. The last administration could have called for return at any point before the inaguration to claim glory, but didn't because they aren't hacks.

[cryptonector]

Having a docked ship is not enough. There must be a docked ship on station at all times for evacuations. The thing that was needed was another ship to take some people back and not everyone (well, all but any Russians, since they have their own ships).

[echoangle]

Wrong, they could have packed all 4 astronauts (the 2 that came to the ISS on the dragon and Suni and Butch) into the docked dragon and returned at any point. They only waited for the next dragon (crew 10) so that not only the 3 people using the Soyuz would be left on the ISS. But this would have absolutely been possible. The remaining crew would have used their Soyuz in emergencies anyways, they don’t need the dragon.

[PavleMiha]

But Crew 10 had also been planned for a while, so the narrative that Trump ordered a new ship to go up "NOW" can't be true. For example, heres a post about NASA moving the launch date to March, in December last year: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/commercialcrew/2024/12/17/nasa-ad...

[bheadmaster]

What do you mean? The fact that they didn't return the astronauts implies the last administration's integrity?

[walls]

Yes, it shows they weren't manipulating NASA for political points.

[porphyra]

Why didn't they do it for the health of the astronauts? What would make doing so "hacks"?

[echoangle]

Why would you do it for the health? Their stays weren’t extremely long compared to other ISS expeditions.