Elon Musk continued his social media spat with the US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy on Wednesday — accusing the latter of trying to “kill NASA”. He also insisted that the acting chief of the American space agency should be fired and referred to him as “Sean Dummy” in a serious of posts. The ongoing tirade is only the latest flashpoint in a long-running feud between the NASA chief and SpaceX CEO.
Conflict re-ignited over the weekend after Duffy publicly stated that SpaceX was falling behind the US government’s timeline for returning humans to the moon. The company led by Musk currently holds a $2.9 billion lunar lander contract. But the transportation secretary said on Tuesday that NASA would reopen contracts for the Artemis mission and suggested that it could go to another billionaire-led rocket company — Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
‘NASA Administrator knows literally zero about spacecraft’
The announcement appears to have left Musk fuming — with the richest man on earth posting a barrage of personal attacks.
“Having a NASA Administrator who knows literally ZERO about rockets and spacecraft undermines the American space program and endangers our astronauts,” Musk reiterated on Wednesday night.
He had earlier launched a poll for X users — asking if a person “whose biggest claim to fame is climbing trees” should be running the American space program.
Another post referred to the top Trump aide as Sean “Dangerously Stupid” Dummy — insisting that the moniker was his “call sign”. He also used emojis to signal vehement support for Jared Isaacman as a replacement for Duffy in response to X comments.
The SpaceX boss also took a somewhat homophobic swipe at Duffy in his posts — using the well-known GIF of a news anchor asking a guest why they were gay.