‘Rockets are hard. So is government,’ host quips

After SpaceX’s eighth suborbital flight test of its fully integrated Starship megarocket on Thursday ended in an explosion, MSNBC hosts dug into CEO Elon Musk, saying, “Go back to your day job and work that out.”

One of the goals of the flight was to catch Starship’s Super Heavy booster, one of two major components, using the “chopsticks” on the launch tower, which was completed successfully.

However, similar to its last flight test in January, its upper stage, once in space, started spinning uncontrollably before losing contact and breaking apart, sending debris plunging back to Earth.

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During the ensuing jokes between MSNBC “The Weekend” co-hosts Symone Sanders, Alicia Menendez and Michael Steele Saturday, Steele took a jab at Musk for the mishap during the flight test.

“For Elon, his response to all of this was, ‘Rockets are hard.’ And Mr. Musk, if they’re so hard, why don’t you go back to your day job and work that out and leave those of us who do government to do government, because you can’t do both,” Steele said. “Clearly, you’re failing right now at both.”

While the SpaceX team immediately began coordination with safety officials for pre-planned contingency responses, ground stops were issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for multiple Florida airports, including Miami International.

The unfortunate event also triggered a “mishap investigation” by the FAA, a standard safety review procedure.

“We will review the data from today’s flight test to better understand [the] root cause,” SpaceX wrote in a statement. “As always, success comes from what we learn, and today’s flight will offer additional lessons to improve Starship’s reliability.”

Steele, former lieutenant governor of Maryland and chair of the Republican National Committee, also criticized Musk’s leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency.

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“I suggest you concentrate on the one thing you think you know more about, and do that, and leave the rest to those of us who know a little bit of how to provide services to people who need them and make the government function,” Steele said. “Rockets are hard. So is government.”

DOGE, a temporary organization within the White House created via executive order earlier this year, was tasked by President Donald Trump with optimizing the federal government, streamlining operations and slashing spending in just 18 months.

Critics claim DOGE has too much access to federal systems, arguing it should not be permitted to cancel federal contracts or make cuts at various agencies.

The organization canceled numerous diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at federal agencies, consulting contracts, leases for underused federal buildings and duplicate agencies and programs.