{"id":232538,"date":"2025-10-22T18:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T18:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/232538\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T18:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T18:39:08","slug":"elon-musk-taunts-nasa-head-duffy-after-artemis-3-moon-lander-move-as-sean-dummy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/232538\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk taunts NASA head Duffy after Artemis 3 moon lander move as ‘Sean Dummy’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk<\/a> is taking aim at the head of NASA amid news that the U.S. space agency may consider companies other than SpaceX to build landers<\/a> to transport astronauts to the moon’s surface.<\/p>\n

Musk, a billionaire and the world’s richest man, took to social media site X to hurl personal attacks at NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy. The insults came after Duffy made a series of public appearances to proclaim NASA’s intention of reopening a contract with SpaceX for a moon lander for its upcoming Artemis III mission<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The lucrative contract was for SpaceX<\/a> to develop its Starship megarocket to meet astronauts in orbit to transport them to the lunar surface<\/a>. Starship, standing more than 400 feet tall when fully stacked, is also critical to Musk’s dream of humans reaching Mars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX<\/a>, initially appeared to shrug off concerns about renewed competition for the contract.<\/p>\n

NASA’s next astronauts could head to moon, Mars. Photos of new class of recruits<\/p>\n

1 of 12<\/p>\n

NASA announced its 2025 Astronaut Candidate Class on Sept. 22, 2025. The 10 candidates, pictured here at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston are: U.S. Army CW3 Ben Bailey, U.S. Air Force Maj. Cameron Jones, Katherine Spies, Anna Menon, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Erin Overcash, U.S. Air Force Maj. Adam Fuhrmann, Dr. Lauren Edgar, Yuri Kubo, Rebecca Lawler, and Dr. Imelda Muller.<\/p>\n

Here’s more about Musk’s exchanges with Duffy over NASA’s decision.<\/p>\n

Musk calls NASA head Duffy ‘Sean Dummy’\"Elon<\/p>\n

Elon Musk is pictured Sept. 21 attending a memorial service for slain conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium, in Glendale, Arizona.<\/p>\n

Musk took aim at Sean Duffy<\/a>, also the U.S. transportation secretary, in a series of social media posts Tuesday, Oct. 21.<\/p>\n

In one post<\/a> on X, which Musk owns, he responded to reports that Duffy is pushing for NASA to be folded into the Transportation Department by saying, “Sean Dummy is trying to kill NASA!”<\/p>\n

In another post<\/a>, Musk shared a poll asking, \u201cShould someone whose biggest claim to fame is climbing trees be running America\u2019s space program?\u201d The poll appears to be a reference to Duffy’s being a lumberjack sports champion<\/a> from Hayward, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

NASA to reopen SpaceX contract for moon lander<\/p>\n

Musk went on the offensive amid news that Duffy and NASA plan to reopen its moon landing contract with SpaceX<\/a>, now worth $4.4 billion, to other bidders.<\/p>\n

NASA had\u00a0previously awarded the contract to SpaceX to develop\u00a0its Starship megarocket to ferry Artemis III astronauts to\u00a0the lunar surface before the decade is out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But now, Duffy\u00a0has recently publicized in a series of network news appearances that NASA is\u00a0looking for new ideas for moon landers<\/a>\u00a0from SpaceX\u00a0rivals like Blue Origin<\/a>\u00a0and Lockheed Martin. The move comes as progress for Starship<\/a>, the world’s largest rocket, has come slower than hoped<\/a> \u2013 even following its two most successful tests of 2025<\/a> from South Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amid a space race with China, President Donald Trump<\/a> also reportedly wants to see a U.S. lunar landing take place before his White House term ends in January 2029, Reuters reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SpaceX launches Starship megarocket on 11th flight test from Texas. See photos<\/p>\n

1 of 22<\/p>\n

The SpaceX Starship spacecraft sits Oct. 12, 2025 atop the Super Heavy booster before sunrise as preparations continue for its 11th test flight from the company’s complex in Starbase, Texas.<\/p>\n

Duffy responds to Musk’s claims: ‘race to the moon is ON’<\/p>\n

Duffy has not publicly addressed Musk\u2019s personal attacks. But he did respond to an earlier post<\/a> from Musk claiming, “SpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry.”<\/p>\n

“Starship will end up doing the whole moon mission,” Musk said. “Mark my words.”<\/p>\n

In response, Duffy said in his own post<\/a> on X, \u201cLove the passion. The race to the Moon is ON.”<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat companies shouldn\u2019t be afraid of a challenge,” Duffy continued. “When our innovators compete with each other, America wins!”<\/p>\n

Musk endorses billionaire Jared Isaacman to lead NASA<\/p>\n

Musk’s insults also come amid a search for NASA’s next long-term leader during Trump’s second term.<\/p>\n

Jared Isaacman, a billionaire who has flown to space twice under private missions<\/a> he funded and commanded, has long been Musk’s favored candidate for the job. But Trump pulled Isaacman’s nomination at the end of May<\/a> during a tense public feud with the SpaceX CEO<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reports, though, have surfaced<\/a> that Isaacman recently met with Duffy to be considered once again as a candidate to lead the world’s largest space agency.<\/p>\n

NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens did not confirm reports on Isaacman’s meetings when reached by the USA TODAY Network.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt President Trump<\/a>\u2019s direction, Secretary Duffy in his capacity as acting NASA Administrator is meeting with and vetting several candidates for the permanent role,\u201d Stevens said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Musk, though, left no question as to who he prefers for the job.<\/p>\n

Responding to a post from venture capitalist Shaun Maguire, writing, \u201cI cannot imagine a better NASA Administrator than Jared Isaacman,\u201d Musk\u00a0replied<\/a>\u00a0with the “100” emoji signaling his agreement.<\/p>\n

Contributing: Reuters<\/p>\n

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Elon Musk calls NASA head Duffy ‘Sean Dummy’ after moon lander decision<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elon Musk is taking aim at the head of NASA amid news that the U.S. space agency may…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,250,110351,307,66,32359,110352,306,6888],"class_list":{"0":"post-232538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-elon-musk","11":"tag-moon-lander","12":"tag-nasa","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-sean-duffy","15":"tag-sean-dummy","16":"tag-space","17":"tag-spacex"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}