A public blame-game has erupted over who's responsible for leaving two NASA astronauts stuck on the International Space Station (ISS) for over eight months.  

Last week, Elon Musk blamed NASA's choice to extend Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore's ISS mission on 'political reasons' during a FOX News joint interview with President Donald Trump, who added that Biden was going to 'leave them in space.'

Rudy Ridolfi, a respected former Space System Commander in the US military, told DailyMail.com that 'the Biden administration's vitriolic hate for Elon' may have influenced how NASA handled the situation.

Williams and Wilmore embarked on what was supposed to be an eight-day ISS mission aboard Boeing's Starliner spacecraft last June. But their capsule was plagued by thruster issues and helium leaks before, during and after the launch.

These numerous technical issues drove NASA to postpone the astronauts' return flight, but the agency still entertained the possibility of using Starliner to bring them home and gave Boeing more than 12 weeks to try and fix the issues from the ground.