If Elon Musk wants to blast Americans up into space, he’s going to have to tone down his act.
Following Musk’s appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast – during which he smoked weed and drank whiskey while on the air and was captured on video doing so – a NASA executive met with the SpaceX CEO about his behavior.
Administrator Jim Bridenstine said his message to Musk was simple: that was not helpful. “I will tell you that was not helpful, and that did not inspire confidence, and the leaders of these organizations need to take that as an example of what to do when you lead an organization that’s going to launch American astronauts,” Bridenstine said in The Atlantic. “I will tell you, he is as committed to safety as anybody, and he understands that that was not appropriate behavior, and you won’t be seeing that again.”
The meeting with Musk comes on the heels of Bridenstine ordering a workplace culture and safety review of Boeing and SpaceX earlier this month.
NASA has contracted with both companies to provide spacecraft to shuttle astronauts from American soil to the International Space Station. As part of the contract – which is worth a $6.8 billion – the companies need to “maintain a program for achieving a drug-and alcohol-free workforce.”
Hence, it makes sense they wouldn’t want Musk smoking and drinking on camera for all of the internet, and the universe, to see.
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