Elon Musk is suing the FAA over fines he claims are "politically-motivated." The former head of the FAA disagrees.

He highlighted how SpaceX is being fined despite stepping up to rescue NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore from the International Space Station (ISS) when Boeing failed to do so. The FAA has imposed a penalty of $6,33,009 or Rs 5.28 crore for the alleged safety violations.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, took to X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday to criticize the Federal Aviation Administration for penalizing SpaceX while neglecting safety issues at Boeing Co (NYSE:BA).

“NASA deemed the Boeing capsule unsafe for astronaut return, turning, out of necessity, to SpaceX, yet instead of fining Boeing for putting astronauts at risk, the FAA is fining SpaceX for trivia! Enough is enough,” the Tesla CEO added.

On Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration levied proposed fines of hundreds of millions of dollars against SpaceX for violations related to rocket launches last year. Soon after, Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of the commercial rocket and satellite company, threatened legal action to fight the citations.

The agency proposed $633,009 in civil penalties against SpaceX for allegedly failing to follow its license requirements.

Elon Musk has announced he will sue the FAA following fines imposed on SpaceX by the regulator for alleged safety breaches

The Space race that defined a part of the cold war between US and the Soviet Union has now taken a different turn. This is because, apart from state-owned space agencies, many private space exploration companies have now jumped into the bandwagon,

Elon Musk lashed out at the FAA for “fining SpaceX for trivia” but not taking any action against Boeing “for putting astronauts at risk”.