Amid the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, is having some fun at the expense of the Russian space agency.
After the latest round of saber-rattling, in which Russia's space chief said the country would no longer supply rocket engines to the United States, Musk had a few choice words.
Following a push into the areas of Ukraine adjacent to Russia and Belarus, Russian troops appear to be making a move on Kyiv and Ukraine's other major cities.
Direct intervention by the U.S. or any other NATO country would likely escalate things, possibly to the point of nuclear war, so countries have aided Ukraine with military equipment, while hitting Moscow hard with sanctions.
Earlier this week, Dmitry Rogozin, chief of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said that Russia would no longer supply the U.S. with rocket engines.
"In a situation like this, we can't supply the United States with our world's best rocket engines," Rogozin announced, as Insider reported. "Let them fly on something else, their broomsticks, I don't know what."
While the Russian-supplied engines were used through the '90s and early 2000s, all indications point to the future of U.S. spaceflight coming through private companies — such as Musk's SpaceX.
Shortly after Rogozin's announcement, in fact, SpaceX launched an array of 47 Starlink satellites into space.
In response to SpaceX's tweet about the Starlink satellites, Musk provided a screengrab of Rogozin's comments, along with the succinct words, "American Broomstick," along with four stars and stripes emojis.
Musk, and most of the world, has sided with Ukraine in response to Russia's hostile invasion. Following the launch of Starlink service in Ukraine, he warned Ukrainians not to activate the system unless absolutely necessary, as it could be targeted by Russian attacks.
Last week, Musk provided Starlink receivers to Ukraine following a plea from Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. The receivers were delivered in record time considering they had to be trucked into the middle of an active warzone.
Since it only requires a satellite signal from space and a local receiver, Starlink is not reliant on cables and traditional internet infrastructure. In this tweet, Musk boasted that the service needs very little power in order to operate.
The 'broomsticks' comment was a bit of a burn, but Musk's response kind of mitigated things. Knowing Musk, it wouldn't be a surprise if he developed rocket engines under the code name "Broomstick."
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h/t: Insider
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