Elon Musk Hails Russian-Made Rocket Engine Design as ‘The Best’

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has expressed his admiration for Russian rocket engineering in a tweet on Thursday.

Musk’s tweet came in response to an article posted by the tech outlet Ars Technica, which said that the Russian Soyuz spacecraft cannot compete with SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. Last December, the SpaceX CEO also praised the design of Russia’s RD-180 liquid-fueled rocket engine.

“Russia has excellent rocket engineering & best engine currently flying,” Musk tweeted.

Last month, Musk made headlines in Russia after responding in Russian on Twitter to the “How do you like that, @elonmusk?” meme that went viral over a year ago. The phrase was born after Musk launched a red Tesla Roadster on his SpaceX rocket toward Mars on Feb. 6, 2018.

Russian social media users reacted to the tech entrepreneur’s achievements with a touch of irony, tweeting photoshopped images claiming to show Russia’s technological supremacy over Musk.

The privately run SpaceX company is seen as a competitor to Russia’s state space program.

In October last year, the head of Russia’s space agency accused Musk and SpaceX of trying to squeeze Moscow out of the carrier rockets market by lowballing prices for commercial space flights.