Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, took to Twitter to mock US President Joe Biden for failing to congratulate his company on its historic space flight.
One of Musk’s followers on Twitter asked him, “The President of the United States has refused to even acknowledge the 4 newest American astronauts who helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars for St. Jude. What’s your theory on why that is?”
Musk replied, “He’s still sleeping.”
Social media users reacted angrily to the tweet.
“Dude is busy running a nation during a pandemic. Post-war intelligence briefings. Cybersecurity threats. SCOTUS shenanigans and human rights. Budget and tax legislation,” wrote one user.
“You’re awake, you may be better than the sleeper. Why don’t you nominate yourself to be the next president of America instead of the sleeper” wrote another user.
On Sunday, the world’s first civilian mission, SpaceX’s Inspiration4, returned to Earth after three days in orbit.
At 7.06 p.m. EDT, the crew aboard the Dragon spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere for a soft water landing off the coast of Florida (4.36 a.m. Sunday India time).
Last Wednesday, the mission launched into orbit aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft (India time Thursday).
Medical Officer Haley Arceneaux, a physician assistant at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital and paediatric cancer survivor; Mission Specialist Chris Sembroski, an Air Force veteran and aerospace data engineer; and Mission Pilot Dr Sian Proctor, a geoscientist, entrepreneur, and trained pilot, led the mission.
The fully automated Dragon capsule soared to an unusually high altitude of 585 kilometres, outdistanced the International Space Station by 160 kilometres. The Dragon’s dome window, modelled after the Cupola on the ISSl, provided the crew with breathtaking views of Earth.
