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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tried to deflect a journalist’s question during a NASA press conference yesterday, saying “move on.”
The NASA press conference announced the winners of the contract to concepts for landing astronauts on the Moon in 2024. SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics will receive millions from NASA to develop lunar landing concepts for the Artemis program. During the question period, Marina Koren, a writer for The Atlantic, asked NASA chief Jim Bridenstine about Musk’s recent and controversial comments about covid-19. As Koren later noted in a tweet, Musk abruptly interrupted his question and said, “Wrong press conference, move on.”
Koren’s question was about Musk’s recent tweets, including one declaring “FREE AMERICA NOW,” a Trump response to ongoing social distancing measures across much of the United States. Musk also has expressed doubts about the severity of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 60,000 people in the US USA Given that NASA has just awarded SpaceX a handsome new $ 135 million contract for Starship, Koren believed his question was “relevant,” as he put it.
Koren is right, of course. Musk’s behavior has previously caused problems for NASA, which had to pay $ 5 million for a security review after Musk was filmed smoking pot on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Additionally, the pandemic is causing major disruptions to companies and supply chains, which could cause delays at SpaceX, among the other bidders and their partners. Covid-19 could also cause budget disruptions, as Congress still needs to approve a NASA request filed last February, as SpaceNews reports. NASA has asked for more money, given its mandate to return to the Moon by 2024.
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But the most irritating thing about Musk’s meeting is that NASA is a taxpayer-funded government agency, and it’s completely inappropriate for the CEO of a private company to try to divert a journalist’s question to a public servant.
Bridenstine continued to address Koren’s question, saying the space agency is taking the covid-19 outbreak “very seriously,” like CNBC. reported. “We have infected several people and, in fact, we have lost lives because of that at the agency,” Bridenstine said.
The episode highlights a challenge to NASA’s strategy of relying on private partners for manned space missions. The space agency has been exposed to the whims and weaknesses of executives, be it Musk or the equally controversial Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos, who, as Amazon boss, is continually on labor disputes with workers
Given the dire unemployment figures and the possibility of a prolonged recession, Congress may have to reallocate funds accordingly, at the expense of a mission to the Moon in 2024. So, like so many other things right now, the pandemic is setting in motion doubts Artemis’s deadlines. As I recently reported, rushing this mission could be a recipe for disaster.
