NASA Confident in SpaceX After Elon Musk’s Noisy Twitter Takeover: Report
Upheaval on Twitter under the direction of its new owner, SpaceX founder Elon Musk, does not distract SpaceX from meeting NASA’s needs, the agency official said.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the tumultuous takeover of Twitter had not affected SpaceX’s work yet. He also received personal assurances about billionaire Elon Musk from a senior SpaceX official, according to NBC News. (Opens in a new tab). Nelson spoke with Gwen Shotwell, a longtime SpaceX employee who is also the company’s president and chief operating officer, on Dec. 5, the report notes. The two were attending the Kennedy Center Honors Gala, an American cultural celebration, in Washington, DC
When Shotwell asked if Twitter was a distraction, he told Nelson “I assure you it isn’t,” Nelson said in the NBC report published Sunday (Dec. 11).
“You know, she was appointed as the person to lead SpaceX,” Nelson said. “So I take it straight from what we say in the South: the horse’s mouth. And it’s the horse that runs SpaceX.”
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SpaceX received its first contract from NASA in 2014 and is responsible for sending astronauts to the International Space Station, along with a large share of its payload, on various types of Dragon spacecraft. Starting in 2025 or 2026, SpaceX is also tasked with landing NASA astronauts on the Moon on Artemis 3 and Artemis 4 using the Starship, a new spacecraft that has yet to reach orbit despite being recently targeted for a December 1 flight.
Even before Musk took over Twitter on Oct. 28, his behavior had caused some to panic. On Twitter prior to the takeover, various media reports indicated, he said Dirty jokes (Opens in a new tab) And the insults (Opens in a new tab) He even called a Thai child rescuer a pedophile (Opens in a new tab). Musk, who was Time Magazine’s Person of the Year 2021, has been accused in recent months of sexual misconduct with a flight attendant in 2016; His “distraction and embarrassment” behavior has also been the subject of an open letter by several anonymous employees at SpaceX.
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Several media reports have stated that Musk’s new ownership has dramatically changed the landscape of Twitter culture. He removed its board of directors and most of its senior executive team, and suddenly laid off more than half (Opens in a new tab) Of the company’s 7,500 employees, they insisted those who remained committed to “hard” work. (Opens in a new tab) With “long hours at high intensity,” a workforce that previously worked remotely has been forced back into the office (Opens in a new tab) With a few days’ notice, it is reported that sleeping accommodation has been installed on site (Opens in a new tab)among many other changes.
Musk has also recreated several controversial Twitter accounts, including President Donald Trump’s Twitter account (Opens in a new tab). Trump was banned from the platform after playing a critical role in the January 6, 2021 riot on Capitol Hill; Trump falsely declared that the federal election results were fraudulent and asked the American people to take action.
Advertisers were fleeing the platform (Opens in a new tab) Meanwhile, Twitter’s revenues are greatly reduced. Musk’s first attempt at creating “verified” $8 sign-up accounts (Opens in a new tab) Last month I created a large number of satirical accounts spreading disinformation in a matter of hours, until the project was shut down.
Lockheed Martin, a longtime NASA contractor, was among the companies that may have lost billions (Opens in a new tab) In the stock market after a “verified” fake account on Lockheed chirp (Opens in a new tab) That the aerospace giant will stop its military sales to the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Elizabeth Howell is co-author of “Why am I taller (Opens in a new tab)? (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book on space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @tweet (Opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter @tweet (Opens in a new tab) or Facebook (Opens in a new tab).
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