Musk threatened to deorbit the ISS on X after Andreas Mogensen, a Danish ESA astronaut and a former station commander, blatantly called the offer a lie.

When Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen pointed this out on X, Musk lashed out at him, using a slur for mentally disabled people.

Musk quickly shot back, calling Mogensen an "idiot". But several former NASA officials have also disputed Musk's claim that he offered to bring back the astronauts earlier from the station.

"Yes, they were left up there for political reasons, which is not good," Musk added. After that interview, things turned ugly on the social media platform X, when a former commander of the space ...