SpaceX Exec Tells NASA Not to Worry About Musk’s Twitter Meltdowns

Billionaire Elon Musk owns SpaceX, probably the most vital personal companions the U.S. has for its ongoing house endeavors. Musk additionally owns Twitter, one of many world’s most vital platforms for on-line discourse. Unfortunately, the world’s richest man can be changing into one of many world’s most polarizing figures because of the shitshow the blue hen app has turn into—and NASA is understandably taking discover.

According to Ars Technica’s senior house editor Eric Berger, NASA’s administrator Bill Nelson mentioned after a Sunday press convention that he had not too long ago talked with Gwynne Shotwell, the SpaceX president and chief working officer. During that dialog, Nelson requested if Musk’s Twitter debacle was proving a “distraction,” which she assured him it wasn’t. According to NBC News, Nelson additionally advised reporters: “I hugged her with a smile on my face, because I know she is running that thing. She’s running SpaceX.”

That Nelson may be involved with “that thing” is wholly comprehensible, particularly given the newly solid association between NASA and SpaceX, during which the personal firm was tapped to construct the subsequent lunar lander for the Artemis program. That $1.15 billion contract for a second, tweaked model of the corporate’s Starship lunar lander is a serious a part of NASA’s plans for a deliberate Artemis 4 Moon touchdown no sooner than 2027. It’s additionally an extension of an current $2.89 billion contract NASA has with SpaceX for an Artemis 3 human touchdown system.

Shotwell has been at SpaceX since 2002 and was named president in 2008. She has been on the forefront of many, many Falcon rocket launches which have helped safe many big-money contracts with NASA, amongst different international locations and personal corporations. While lauding Shotwell, astronomer and science blogger Phil Plait doubted that the Musk-enabled infiltration of racism and xenophobia into the Twitter discourse hasn’t had an impression on the billionaire’s different corporations.

NASA has made SpaceX an integral companion for its Artemis program, and past. With the splashdown of the Orion capsule on Sunday, the U.S. house company is able to name its first Artemis launch successful. That’s to not say some, together with former NASA head Lori Garver, aren’t scrutinizing and criticizing your entire enterprise for the a number of delays of its first launch. Any additional delays on account of distracted contractors can be extra ammunition for such criticisms.

SpaceX continues to be a key companion for NASA, offering industrial crew and cargo providers for the house company. Any partnership with an out of doors group, significantly when human lives are at stake, must take potential dangers under consideration. Should SpaceX start to waiver in its capability to ship, or exhibit indicators of unprofessionalism and poor conduct on the office, NASA could select to look elsewhere. Indeed, Boeing is at the moment engaged on a industrial crew car, known as Starliner, to move NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, whereas Blue Origin and Dynetics are in search of to safe a NASA contract for an alternate, non-SpaceX Artemis lunar lander.

The factor is, we already know Musk’s tweets have brought about friction at SpaceX. Back in July, a number of firm staff distributed an inner letter complaining that Musk’s twitter behavior was a “distraction and embarrassment.” How did the corporate reply? Well, SpaceX rotated and fired the eight staff accountable for the letter. Last month, those self same staff filed costs with the National Labor Relations Board claiming retaliation.

The fired staff additionally listed a few of Musk’s most-offending tweets as much as that time, however all of that occurred earlier than the billionaire lastly closed on his $44 billion buy of the platform. Musk’s tweets have turn into much more explicitly political as of late, even roping in famed astronauts into his on-line obsessions. Over the previous weekend, former astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted at Musk, asking him to cease mocking members of the LGBTQ neighborhood. He additionally requested Musk to cease spreading accusations towards the White House’s chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci.

In response to Kelly’s clear and diplomatic request for empathy, Musk doubled down on his conspiratorial, anti-LGBT rhetoric and complained about folks “forcing” their pronouns upon others. Let’s additionally not forget how Musk’s claims towards Fauci conveniently ignore his personal early pandemic tweets, which proved to be very, very flawed.