NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Suni Williams, who remained in space for nine months before their return to Earth last week, deserve to get the extra pay they're due, President Donald Trump agreed Friday, even if he has to pay it from his own pocket.
The astronauts, according to NASA will be paid only their regular pay and a $5 per diem pay for the 286 days they were in space — but not overtime, according to an article in The New York Times this week, totaling just $1,430 in extra pay for the time they had to wait before coming back home.
"Nobody has ever mentioned this to me, and if I have to, I will pay that out of my own pocket," Trump said during a press conference aired live on Newsmax. "I will pay it right out of my … is that all? That is not a lot for what they had to go through."
According to NASA, Williams and Wilmore, who remained on the International Space Station for 278 extra days after their return ride home malfunctioned, will be paid like any other government employee whose trip is extended.
"While in space, NASA astronauts are on official travel orders as federal employees," Jimi Russell, a spokesman for the agency's Space Operations Mission Directorate told the Times.
This means they are due no overtime, weekend or holiday pay.
But they would get the $5 a day "incidentals" allowance that federal employees get for travel expenses.
Their annual salary is just over $152,000 a year as astronauts, according to NASA.
Trump also praised SpaceX owner Elon Musk, after NASA used one of the company's ships to retrieve the astronauts.
"You know, there is only so long — even though they are in the capsule — [that] their bodies start to deteriorate, after nine or 10 months," Trump said. "It gets bad after 14 or 15 months with the bones and the blood and all the things. If we didn't have Elon … who else was going to get them?"
Trump, meanwhile, promised to protect Musk's other business interest, Tesla, which has come under attack from vandals who have recently set fire to dealerships, vehicles, and charging stations.
"He is going through a lot from what they are doing to him," Trump said. "These people will be prosecuted. From what they tell me … they could get 20 years in jail. They will get it. There will be no weakness, no leniency and no pardons, I can tell you that."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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