NASA convinced Elon Musk's involvement with Twitter not a distraction for SpaceX

NASA is convinced that Elon Musk’s increased involvement in matters on Twitter lately is not a distraction. The agency Administrator Bill Nelson said that SpaceX is still catering to NASA’s requirements as Musk’s takeover of the microblogging site has not affected the firm's work so far. 

Nelson made these revelations after a conversation with SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer, Gwynne Shotwell earlier this month after a conference in Washington D.C. When asked if Twitter is turning out to be a distraction to SpaceX, Shotwell said, "I assure you, it is not. You have nothing to worry about," according to Nelson, NBC News reported. 

"As you know, she has been designated as the person to lead SpaceX," Nelson said to Space.com. "So I take it straight from what we in the south say- the horse's mouth. And she's the horse that's running SpaceX." The fears of distraction stemmed in Nelson's mind as Musk is currently busy in eliminating the Twitter bots and clearing the account verification mess with dozens of missions under SpaceX's belt. 

SpaceX-NASA relationship

SpaceX is currently the only commercial space company in the US and the world which is transporting NASA astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA has funneled billions to Musk's company under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract of the Commercial Crew Program. The latest contract was awarded to SpaceX in September this year when NASA booked flights in the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft up to the Crew-14 mission which runs up to 2030. NASA first awarded the contract in 2014 and the total value of the CCtCap contract currently stands at $4.5 billion.

In addition to this, both agencies have collaborated for the Artemis Program which is America's dream to take astronauts back to the Moon. To realise this dream, NASA has handed over two contracts total worth $4.4 billion for the development of the Starship vehicle by SpaceX. This Starship will be used to ferry astronauts from the lunar orbit to and from the lunar surface after the crew switches from the Orion spacecraft. Currently awaiting its first orbital launch, Starship will be used for crewed landings under Artemis 3 and Artemis 4 which are planned no earlier than the second half of this decade.