NASA and Elon Musk have been stuck in a war of words after the latter first accused its chief of being unfit for the job after the space agency refused to use its Starship rocket system to land astronauts on the moon.
Elon Musk has attacked NASA’s boss while claiming that he isn’t smart enough to be heading the most influential space agency in the world. The Space X’s owner criticised NASA’s chief Sean Duffy after the space agency said it was ready to use moon landers from other companies and not the ones manufactured by Musk’s space company. Musk took to X and accused Duffy of “trying to kill NASA”, and wrote, “The person responsible for America’s space program can’t have a 2 digit IQ.”
Earlier, NASA had planned to use SpaceX’s Starship rocket system to take forwards US’ mission to land on the lunar surface but now it will accept proposals from SpaceX’s rival groups. The US’ space agency has been hurrying with these plans to land its astronauts to the moon while Donald Trump remains the US president in his second term and before China could take any step. Duffy told CNBC, “We’re not going to wait for one company. We’re going to push this forward and win the second space race against the Chinese.”
Why NASA is seeking other space companies is because SpaceX, which has a USD 2.9bn (Rs) contract for the Artemis III mission, has been delaying and is running behind schedule, along with the fact that Starship has been witnessing a number of massive failures this year. However, Musk has defended the company’s progress, saying, “SpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry. Moreover, Starship will end up doing the whole moon mission. Mark my words.”
In response to Musk’s big claims, Duffy said, “Love the passion. The race to the Moon is ON. Great companies shouldn’t be afraid of a challenge. When our innovators compete with each other, America wins!” Mr Duffy is currently the acting administrator of NASA, but reports suggest that he wants to keep the role.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: dnaindia.com
