SpaceX CEO Elon Musk slams NASA chief for backing competitors

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has gone berserk against the acting National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) chief Sean Duffy after the latter revealed plans to get moon landers from Musk’s competitors.

In a series of posts shared on X (formerly Twitter), the tech billionaire lashed out at Duffy calling him a “dummy”.

A user on X cited a Wall Street Journal report claiming, “Duffy is pushing for NASA to fold into the Department of Transportation.” Musk quoted the tweet and wrote, “Sean Dummy is trying to kill NASA”.

This tirade from Musk came after the NASA chief revealed that the US space agency wants to send astronauts back to the moon before China does so. Therefore, they were open to using moon landers from SpaceX competitors.

Previously, NASA planned to use the SpaceX starship rocket system for landing on the moon. The rocket is in the development phase.

In another post on X, Musk created a poll and asked users, “Should someone whose biggest claim to fame is climbing trees be running America’s space program?”

The poll had more than 172,000 votes on Tuesday, October 22, 2025, and is still running.

Musk’s SpaceX won a $2.1 billion contract in 2021 to build Starship for landing astronauts on the moon by 2027. However, recent failures have caused the company to fall behind schedule.

China has already revealed plans to put human presence on the Moon by 2030, intensifying the new U.S.-China space race.

In an interview with CNBC, Duffy said that they will not wait for one company, adding, “We’re going to push this forward and win the second space race against the Chinese.”