NASA chief spoke with SpaceX official about Musk’s Twitter ‘distraction’

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said he pulled aside the head of SpaceX to raise concerns about Elon Musk’s controversies at Twitter potentially affecting the space company.

Nelson said he asked Gwynne Shotwell, the president and COO of SpaceX, earlier this month if controversy at Twitter would affect business at SpaceX, a crucial partner for NASA.

“Tell me that the distraction that Elon might have on Twitter is not going to affect SpaceX,” Nelson said he told her, according to NBC News.

Shotwell responded that “you have nothing to worry about,” according to Nelson’s recounting of the conversation.

Nelson told NBC News that he is not concerned about SpaceX, which Musk runs as CEO, and that he was reassured by Shotwell.

“I hugged her with a smile on my face, because I know she is running that thing. She’s running SpaceX,” he said.

Nelson was speaking to reporters after a press conference on Sunday just hours after the Orion capsule returned to Earth, completing the Artemis 1 mission. His comments about Shotwell and SpaceX were also reported by an editor at Ars Technica.

SpaceX ferries NASA astronauts to the International Space Station and has saved the space agency billions of dollars.

SpaceX is also working with NASA on future Artemis missions, which will land astronauts on the moon for the first time in nearly 50 years.