As chairman of the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation, Cruz effectively has control over Isaacman's confirmation process. He was also just re-elected to a six-year term, so theoretically Cruz is less susceptible to political pressure from the Trump White House.

Andreas Mogensen, a Danish astronaut who previously was the ISS commander until March of last year, called out Musk over his comments during his interview with Sean Hannity this week, where Musk said they were accelerating the return of the two astronauts, and claimed they were left in the ISS “for political reasons.”

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recommended hastening the end of the International Space Station on his social media site X, arguing that the orbiting laboratory should be taken out of orbit within two years instead of the current five-year target.