Elon Musk criticizes acting director as suspicious, NASA responds

Due to the repeated setbacks of the lunar landing program, the US space community is restless, fearing that they are falling behind China, and there has been constant infighting recently.

This week, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and US Secretary of Transportation and NASA Sean Duffy launched personal attacks on each other.

According to a New York Times report on October 23, the reason for the relationship between the two was Duffy’s announcement that NASA would reopen the bidding process for the next round of the “Artemis 3” moon mission. Currently, the contract is held by Musk’s SpaceX. Musk reportedly launched the latest attack on Trump administration officials when his own economic interests were affected.

On the 23rd local time, NASA issued its latest response to Musk’s attack. Spokeswoman Bethany Stevens said in a statement that acting director Duffy “focuses the agency on a clear goal – ensuring that the United States returns to the moon before China.”

Musk has yet to comment on the above response.

In the past few days, Musk has sent a series of insults to Duffy on social media, accusing Duffy of lacking intelligence and putting astronauts at risk of death. He called Duffy “Sean Dummy” and scolded him for trying to “destroy” NASA.

“The IQ of the person in charge of the US space program cannot be in the double digits.” Musk was full of fire in a post on the 21st.

For the posts, he also opened another post asking, “Should a man who prides himself on climbing trees be in charge of the US space program,” apparently mocking Duffy for participating in a carpentry competition.

American media pointed out that Musk has repeatedly clashed with government officials over the years, but this series of insults against Duffy was seen as him once again causing conflict among senior government officials working closely with SpaceX, and these remarks quickly caused a strong shock in the space industry.

The New York Times believes that Sean’s comments the previous day (20th) appeared to have angered Musk. At the time, in an interview with Fox News, he publicly accused SpaceX of falling behind in progress and that the rendering would open up competition for lunar landing contracts to achieve a manned return to the Moon before China.

“SpaceX is a great company, they’ve achieved incredible things, but they’re behind schedule,” Duffy said on the show, adding that US President Donald Trump wants to “beat China” and achieve another moon landing before the end of his term. “We’re going to start a space race and have American companies compete to see who can get us back to the moon first,” he added.

Duffy recently publicly criticized SpaceX for its slow progress, hinting that it would rebid for the video screenshot.

Currently, Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, owned by Amazon founder Bezos, are all supporting NASA’s Artemis program. According to a NASA spokesperson, those contracts expire on October 29.

SpaceX is also one of several contractors participating in NASA’s Artemis mission, which aims to achieve “the first sustained human presence on the moon” and prepare for missions to explore Mars. In 2021, SpaceX won a $2.9 billion contract to provide a lunar landing system for astronauts for the Artemis III mission.

The official lunar mission is scheduled to take astronauts to the moon in 2027. However, SpaceX’s giant moon rocket “Starship” is still in its infancy, with three failed flights since 2025 and only a few successful suborbital test flights. In response to

Sean’s criticism, Musk immediately shot back: “Compared to other companies, SpaceX is making lightning progress.” “Starship” will eventually complete a full moon mission.”

However, Sean responded on social media in a strange way: “I love this passion. Big companies shouldn’t be afraid of challenges.”

SpaceX is currently facing a major challenge in the research and development of the lunar module, which is planned to be an improvement on the company’s Starship rocket and spacecraft system, which it has been testing since 2023. SpaceX engineers have reportedly made some progress on the Starship project, but the vehicle still needs to complete a number of important tests, such as large-scale orbital fuel transfer, before it can carry NASA astronauts. In addition, the

Trump administration’s “downsizing” plan and the “government shutdown” in the US have continued to suppress the “Artemis Program”. It is estimated that 83% of NASA employees, including contractors, are being forced to take leave. The

New York Times mentioned that NASA is very important to Musk. As Secretary of Transportation and Acting Administrator of NASA, Duffy oversees key areas of Musk’s biggest investments, such as space technology and the roads Musk wants his self-driving cars on.

The Wall Street Journal also reported earlier this week that Duffy intends to “step up” from his position as acting NASA administrator and is now competing with tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman for the position of NASA administrator.

Isaacman has a close relationship with Musk, a major customer of SpaceX’s nascent commercial space business, having flown into space twice in SpaceX capsules and spent hundreds of millions of dollars on them.

After Trump returned to the White House, he initially nominated Isaacman to be NASA administrator, but the White House later rescinded Isaacman’s nomination. In July, Trump appointed U.S. Transportation Secretary Duffy as acting NASA administrator. The report also cites people familiar with the matter as saying that Duffy even intended to bring NASA into the Department of Transportation.

Compared with the hustle and bustle of the US space program, China’s lunar exploration program is progressing steadily and smoothly, and the development of manned lunar landings has been progressing steadily, and many lunar exploration and sampling missions have been carried out, laying the foundation for China’s first landing on the moon in 2030.

On April 23 this year, Lin Xiqiang, spokesman for China’s manned space program and deputy director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, said that the development of our country’s manned lunar landing mission is progressing smoothly, and the Long March 10 launch vehicle, Mengzhou manned spacecraft, lunar lander, Wangyu lunar lander, Wangyu lunar suit, manned lunar probe, etc. are carrying out preliminary development and sample testing as planned.

Since then, in August and September, the Long March 10 series of launch vehicles completed two tethered ignition tests at the Wenchang spaceport, making important breakthroughs.

Shan Zhongde, director of the China National Space Administration, previously said that China’s lunar exploration project has always adhered to the principles of equality, mutual benefit, peaceful use and win-win cooperation, and shared the fruits of development with the international community. China will continue to open international applications for lunar scientific research samples, and we look forward to more scientific discoveries made by scientists around the world to jointly expand human awareness and benefit all mankind.