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The offer of an early return was rejected because mission/operations plans required/expected a ship to return now. If this ship (which has been docked at the ISS for months) had returned early with the astronauts, then NASA would have needed to pay Elon to launch another as replacement so it could return now. Might as well leave the astronauts for a few months and have them do some science. It's just more efficient and less wasteful than paying Elon twice.
it's not even about the money, it's because the new spacecraft that spacex is making for crew 10 is delayed. NASA doesn't want to keep the ISS uncrewed, so they're waiting for Crew 10 to arrive to have Crew 9 return. that's all
Oh, THAT'S why he wants to deorbit the ISS early
What an ass
There are other astronauts on the station, too.
But without any Russians lately, the ISS is a bit short staffed.
So: political reasons. The Biden administration refused to waste money by paying SpaceX for an extra flight. And if there's one thing this new adminstration is all about, it's funneling billions of dollars to Musk's various companies.
No, that's economics not politics.
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