Joe Biden ‘sleeping’ on SpaceX Inspiration4 Praise

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk would very much like the president to give him a little more attention, it seems.

This weekend, SpaceX completed its Inspiration4 mission, the first fully civilian mission in orbit, who used one of the Crew Dragon Crew Capsules. It is certainly a great achievement for the company, but Joe Biden has yet to publicly recognize the start. Why is not clear. Maybe the administration doesn’t think everything that the handful of billionaires are rushing to conquer space needs comment. Or it could have to do with Musk being a political bottom. He is sadly mean on Twitter, while Tesla would have long anti- employeeunion tactical and face a battle with federal auto safety regulators investigating its autopilot function. Musk also spent much of the coronavirus pandemic parroting anti-containment rhetoric and, according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, is completely on board with a extreme abortion ban in the state.

Whatever the exact reason for the perceived snub, Musk is upset that, like virtually every other American, the President did not personally congratulate him today. Hence that snippy tweet on Sunday apparently referring to Donald Trump’s nickname “Sleepy Joe” for the POTUS, which has predictably triggered a media coverage round:

Musk then replied “Seems that way” to a meme describing the United Auto Workers, which Tesla has. long tried to delete to organize workers in his auto factories, as having a stranglehold on Biden’s face. Tesla was recently not on the invitation list at a White House event promoting electric vehicles, most likely due to his anti-union record. This month, Musk has complained publicly that a proposal from the Biden administration to offer a tax incentive of $ 12,500 to buyers of electric vehicles must have been drafted by “Ford / UAW lobbyists” because it includes a credit of $ 4,500 for cars manufactured by trade unions.

What you could say about this is that this is pretty standard Musk stuff, referring both to the tweet of what could have been better unsaid, to the slim ego. like paper that creates problems for one of its businesses and the resulting cover pages on Google News (including this article). He has always been quite contemptuous of the government when it does not do exactly what it wants it to do. This includes a long-standing spat with the Security and Trade Commission, a confrontation with the health authorities of California to know if the workers of Tesla were “essential” during the pandemic, and concerns about autopilot raised by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Although the NTSB does not have the kind of regulatory authority necessary to interfere with Tesla’s plans to deploy enhanced “full autonomous driving capability,” the agency has previously warned that Tesla must address “basic security issues” before doing so. Its leader, Jennifer Homendy, called Tesla’s marketing the feature “deceptive and irresponsible.”

As CNN noted, the SpaceX flight has been repeatedly recognized by Bill Nelson, who as the Biden-appointed administrator of NASA overseeing the Commercial Crew Program is of course the federal official whose job description involves the most weighing successful private missions in orbit.

On Saturday Nelson tweeted, “Congratulations # Inspiration4! With today’s water landing, you have helped demonstrate that low earth orbit is open for business. Nelson also previously commented on Inspiration4’s launch day, tweeting “Low Earth Orbit is now more accessible so more people can experience the wonders of space.” We look forward to the future, where NASA is one of the many customers in the commercial space market. Forward and up.