By Katherine Tinsley
6:07pm PST, Mar 7, 2025
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Musk currently heads the
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and critics pointed out how the South African billionaire's work seems hypocritical.
"If NASA had the failure rate SpaceX does, Elon Musk would be firing everyone and Congress would be demanding to know where the money is going," one X user wrote.
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Social media users noted that NASA and
SpaceX have a working relationship, but Musk famously called astronaut
Andreas Mogensen an "idiot."
"Remember when Elon Musk attacked our astronauts, claiming that NASA wouldn't let SpaceX pick up the people stranded on the ISS," one X user pointed out. "Yeah — I'm sure 'politics' is the reason they don't want to use the SpaceX Starship."
"Someone said SpaceX is the best fireworks company," another person joked.
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Musk, who is active on X, used the app to address the mishap.
"Today was a minor setback," the businessman wrote. "Progress is measured by time. The next ship will be ready in 4 to 6 weeks."
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Space X released a statement on their website explaining what went wrong.
"Approximately two and a half minutes into flight, the Super Heavy booster shutdown all but three of its Raptor engines as planned for hot-staging separation," the statement read.
"Starship then successfully lit its six Raptor engines and separated from the Super Heavy booster to continue its ascent to space," it continued.
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SpaceX later clarified that the accident didn't create waste in the region.
"Any surviving debris would have fallen within the pre-planned Debris Response Area," they stated. "There are no toxic materials present in the debris and no significant impacts expected to occur to marine species or water quality."
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SpaceX assured readers they will work to find out what went wrong during blastoff.
"With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's flight will help us improve Starship's reliability," they said. "We will conduct a thorough investigation, in coordination with the FAA, and implement corrective actions to make improvements on future Starship flight tests."
