On April 1, 2026, Nasa’s Artemis II mission embarked on a ten-day journey to the Moon, marking the first manned lunar mission in more than five decades. The launch, held at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, drew over 400,000 spectators and generated significant buzz on social media platforms like YouTube, where the launch video garnered over 17 million views. While notable figures such as Google CEO Sundar Pichai and actor Tom Hanks have expressed their thoughts on the mission, SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk has remained notably silent.
Despite Musk’s well-known enthusiasm for space exploration and his company SpaceX’s advancements in rocket technology with the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy reusable rockets, he has refrained from commenting on Artemis II publicly. Speculation has arisen regarding Musk’s silence, with some suggesting that he may harbor jealousy towards the Nasa mission.
One aerospace engineer, Christopher David, shared a previous prediction that suggested skepticism about SpaceX’s Starship reaching orbit successfully. This prediction resurfaced as the Starship achieved orbital velocity in March 2024. David pointed out concerns about the Starship’s weight and reusability affecting its payload capacity in Low Earth Orbit.
In response to David’s post, one individual hinted at a possible jealousy within the Tesla/SpaceX community towards Nasa’s success. Another commenter criticized Musk’s lack of hands-on experience in space exploration, claiming he takes credit for his employees’ work without actively contributing.
The question of whether Musk is truly envious of Artemis II remains unanswered as he has made minimal mentions of the mission on his social media platform, X. Notably, a single reference to Artemis II was found where Musk simply responded with “Grok” to a comparison between ChatGPT and his AI chatbot.
In a related development, Nasa terminated SpaceX’s $4.4 billion contract for the Artemis III mission due to delays in Starship’s development. This decision could potentially explain Musk’s reserved stance on Artemis II, especially considering that the mission utilizes Nasa’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.
Looking ahead, Nasa aims to land astronauts on the Moon as part of the Artemis IV mission scheduled for 2028. Elon Musk had previously emphasized Starship’s capability to deliver greater payloads to the Moon compared to the current Artemis program expectations, indicating ongoing competition and collaboration in the space exploration arena.