SpaceX CEO Elon Musk makes it sound as if he always wanted to put a Tesla Roadster, and not much else, on top of the Falcon Heavy rocket for this week’s historic maiden launch. But NASA’s former deputy administrator, Lori Garver, says the story behind Starman and the Roadster is more complicated.
In an op-ed written for The Hill, Garver says that SpaceX offered NASA the opportunity to put a payload on the launch — but that NASA refused the offer.
And in follow-up tweets, Garver says she was told by an unnamed SpaceX executive in advance of the launch that the Air Force turned down the offer as well.
