After the safe return Tuesday of two astronauts left behind for months on the International Space Station, the White House characterized the pair as “stranded� and trumpeted their return as a “rescue.� Those are words that NASA has been resisting for months.
It made for an awkward situation in a post-splashdown press conference, when NASA administrators insisted they could have brought Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams home at any time, while also seeking not to contradict the president.
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