Renowned author Stephen King on Wednesday mocked billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk for the latest mishap involving his rocket manufacturing company SpaceX‘s Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
What Happened: “Oops. SpaceX launches are on hold after a booster rocket toppled over in flames while landing Wednesday,” King wrote on social media platform X.
Musk responded to the mockery with a lewd remark, along with an AI-generated image of the author rolling in money as the antagonist character “It” from his 1986 horror novel by the same name.
SpaceX launched 21 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Florida at 3:48 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Though the satellites were successfully deployed, the first stage booster tipped over following touchdown at the droneship in the sea and exploded.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) subsequently demanded an investigation and grounded the company’s Falcon 9 rocket. It is unclear as to how long the halt in launch operations may last.
“Now we figure out what went wrong to drive the landing failure rate far above 1 in a thousand, then 1 in 10 thousand … 1 in a million [sic], etc,” Musk wrote on X about the incident with the SpaceX rocket.
Why It Matters: Musk and King engage in banter on X now and then. In June, the two took turns telling jokes.
King then initiated the banter, jesting about an Italian chef's demise and questioning Musk's ability to match his humor.
"The Italian chef died. You could say he pasta-way. Can Elon tell jokes like that? I'm thinking no," he posted.
In response, Musk posted a couple of jokes of his own. "What do you call a Great Dane eating a small piece of ham in a little village? Hamlet eating hamlet in a hamlet," he wrote.
King’s profile has a blue tick on X. However, in April 2023, the author said that he did not subscribe to the feature. Musk responded to the author by saying welcome, hinting that it was his personal favor to the author on the platform he owns.
Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022 and soon after rebranded the social media platform as X.
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