Acting NASA chief and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and SpaceX founder Elon Musk clashed online Tuesday after Duffy invited private companies to challenge SpaceX for a lunar mission contract and suggested bringing NASA under the Transportation Department’s authority.
The spat involving the U.S. space program and the SpaceX CEO, who has extensive financial ties, spilled into public view after Musk responded on the social media platform X to reports that Duffy wants to fold the National Aeronautics and Space Administration into the Transportation Department. Duffy is also the Transportation Secretary.
"The person responsible for America's space program can't have a 2 digit IQ," Musk wrote.
The day before, Duffy said on Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program that development of SpaceX's Starship is behind schedule in its mission to return humans to the moon under the agency's Artemis program, an effort rivaling China's moon program.
As a result, Duffy said, NASA will invite other companies to compete for the mission, which was awarded to SpaceX in 2021. NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens said the agency plans to soon issue a formal request for companies to pitch faster moon lander concepts for the Artemis 3 mission. She added that Duffy is focused on beating China to the moon.
