Elon Musk called a Danish astronaut “fully ret---ed” in an argument on the billionaire’s social media platform.
Musk’s used the term, which many in the disabled community consider a slur, as an insult against Andreas Mogensen—a European Space Agency astronaut who in 2023 piloted a mission for Musk’s SpaceX.
Early on Thursday, Mogensen rebuked Musk for claiming that the two NASA astronauts currently stranded in space were left there for “political reasons.”
“What a lie,” Mogensen, 48, wrote on his X account. “And from someone who complains about lack of honesty from the mainstream media.”
Musk did not take well to the criticism.
“You are fully ret---ed,” the world’s richest man fired back. “SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago. I OFFERED THIS DIRECTLY to the Biden administration and they refused. Return WAS pushed back for political reasons. Idiot.”
In his response, Mogensen took the high ground, but doubled down on his criticism of Musk’s original claim, which the two astronauts in question—Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, who have been in space for eight months—have themselves rejected.
“Elon, I have long admired you and what you have accomplished, especially at SpaceX and Tesla,” Mogensen wrote. “You know as well as I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since last September. Even now, you are not sending up a rescue ship to bring them home. They are returning on the Dragon capsule that has been on ISS since last September.”
Musk and President Donald Trump have both repeatedly blamed the Biden administration for not bringing the astronauts back sooner after their return home from the International Space Station was delayed by issues with the spacecraft.
In an interview with CNN last week, the astronauts challenged this narrative.
“We don’t feel abandoned. We don’t feel stuck. We don’t feel stranded. I understand why others may think that,” Wilmore said from the ISS. “We come prepared. We come committed.”
NASA announced in December that Williams and Wilmore would begin their return to Earth on March 12.
In 2023, Mogensen, who has nearly two decades of experience as an astronaut, became the first non-American pilot of a U.S. spacecraft.
The mission, a collaboration between NASA and SpaceX, saw the crew spend more than six months in orbit, conducting science experiments.
Musk, who Trump has tapped to gut the federal bureaucracy, has dramatically ramped up his use of the words “retard” and “retarded” on X since the now-president was elected.
The billionaire has been firing off tweets in rapid succession since Trump took office, with one report stating he is averaging 100 tweets a day and almost 1500 posts from Jan. 21 to Feb. 4 despite being entrusted with leading the Department of Government Efficiency.
A search of Musk’s account shows that he only used the slur six times prior to November, all from 2024. Since then, he has done so more than a dozen times.
