Musk criticizes Duffy amid NASA leadership debate

WASHINGTON — SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk hurled insults at NASA’s acting administrator a day after complaints that the company was behind schedule on its Artemis lunar lander.

In a series of social media posts Oct. 21, Musk questioned the qualifications and intelligence of Sean Duffy, who also serves as secretary of transportation.

“Sean Dummy is trying to kill NASA!” Musk wrote in one post responding to reports that Duffy was interested in folding the space agency into the Department of Transportation in some way.

That was one of Musk’s milder comments. In another post, he shared a poll asking, “Should someone whose biggest claim to fame is climbing trees be running America’s space program?” — a reference to Duffy’s early career as a lumberjack.

Musk’s attacks came a day after Duffy, in television interviews, said he planned to “open up” SpaceX’s existing Human Landing System contract for the Artemis 3 mission, citing delays in the company’s development of its Starship lunar lander.

“I love SpaceX, it’s an amazing company. The problem is they’re behind,” Duffy said in an interview on CNBC. “So, I’m going to open up the contract. I’m going to let other space companies compete with SpaceX, like Blue Origin, and again, whatever one can get us there first, to the moon, we’re going to take.”

Later that day, Musk appeared unfazed by the potential competition. “SpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry,” he posted, adding, “Starship will end up doing the whole moon mission.”

Duffy did not respond publicly to Musk’s personal attacks but did reply to the earlier post about competition. “Love the passion. The race to the Moon is ON,” he posted Oct. 21. “Great companies shouldn’t be afraid of a challenge.”

The exchanges took place amid debates about who should lead NASA in the current administration. Jared Isaacman, who was nominated to be NASA administrator only to have that nomination withdrawn by the president at the end of May, has been meeting with administration officials in a bid to be renominated. That included an interview with Duffy earlier this month.

Duffy, who has served as acting administrator since July, has reportedly expressed interest in keeping the role while continuing to serve as secretary of transportation. That could involve incorporating NASA, an independent agency not part of any Cabinet department, into the Department of Transportation.

That proposal would likely face strong congressional resistance. “NASA has been an independent agency since its founding, and I think it should continue to be so,” Rep. George Whitesides, D-Calif., vice ranking member of the House Science Committee, told reporters after a panel discussion at the New Liberal Action Summit Oct. 21.

He called the idea a “fundamental mismatch,” noting that NASA is a research and development agency while the Department of Transportation is primarily a regulator. “I don’t think it will happen. Congress is not going to let NASA move to the DOT,” he said.

There has been broader support for Duffy’s proposal to reintroduce competition for the Artemis 3 lunar landing, although NASA has provided few details about how it would work. A NASA spokesperson said SpaceX and Blue Origin have been asked to submit “acceleration approaches” for their lunar lander concepts by Oct. 29. The agency also plans to issue a request for information to allow other companies to propose alternatives.

Jim Bridenstine, NASA administrator during the first Trump administration, is among those who have questioned NASA’s current approach. He told the Senate Commerce Committee last month that it was “highly unlikely” the U.S. would return humans to the moon before China’s first crewed landing, citing the complexity of SpaceX’s Starship architecture.

At a panel hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies Oct. 21, Bridenstine declined to comment directly on Duffy’s Artemis 3 plans. “We have a NASA administrator and he’s working his way through it. I fully appreciate what he’s trying to do,” he said.

“I’m going to leave it to him to make those decisions,” he added, noting that he and Duffy are friends from their time in Congress. “I certainly don’t want to opine about or second-guess what he’s got in front of him.”

Musk, meanwhile, voiced support for Isaacman’s potential renomination to lead NASA. Responding to a post from venture capitalist Shaun Maguire, who wrote, “I cannot imagine a better NASA Administrator than Jared Isaacman,” Musk replied with a single emoji: “💯.”