Seems like they should get more than $5 a day for being stranded in space…
Earlier this week, NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams safely returned to earth after an unexpectedly-extended stay at the International Space Station.
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NASA opted to send the aircraft back down to Earth without anyone aboard, which left the pair of astronauts stranded up in space until the next mission.
All in all, the trip that was supposed to be 8 days ended up lasting 286. It was only when Elon Musk’s SpaceX stepped in to help bring them home that the astronauts were able to prepare to go back to Earth.
Musk and Trump had implied that the astronauts could have been saved earlier, but former President Joe Biden decided to leave them there until after the November election, and the astronauts themselves confirmed that Musk had offered to rescue them earlier but was denied by the Biden administration.
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But they weren’t exactly well-compensated for the trouble of being stranded in space for 9 months…
Reports emerged after the astronauts returned that they weren’t given any extra pay for their unplanned stay at the ISS, reportedly earning only $5 a day in per diem (I guess they didn’t have to worry about buying food) for a total of $1,430 for their trouble.
Seems a little low, no? I mean sure, they didn’t have to pay for housing or anything like that while they were away, but still…if you want to strand me in space, at least pay me for it.
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“Well, nobody’s ever mentioned this to me. If I have to I’ll pay it out of my own pocket, ok? I’ll get it for ’em.
I like that. I’ll pay it out of my own pocket. Is that all? That’s not a lot for what they had to go through.”
Trump also praised Elon for his work in bringing our astronauts safely back to earth:
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And listen, I’m all for cutting government spending, getting rid of waste and shrinking the size of our government, but I’m fine with some tax dollars going towards throwing a few bones at our astronauts who were quite literally stranded in space for 9 months.
Luckily it sounds like Trump is going to make sure they’re taken care of.
* Original Article: