Ahead of this weekend's historic SpaceX launch sending a manned crew to the International Space Station -- a first for a private spacecraft -- boss Elon Musk revealed that he tested positive for COVID-19. In his post on Twitter revealing his testing status, Musk declared that something "extremely bogus" was going on as he had two negative tests and two positive tests. The two positives were enough to prompt NASA chief Jim Bridenstine to recommend Musk quarantine during the launch, but his comments about his testing experience soon led the internet to dub Musk "Space Karen".
After Musk's post about his COVID-19 testing Dr. Emma Bell, whose Twitter bio identifies them as a bioinformatics postdoc, shared Musk's tweet calling him out for misleading information regarding the nature of the tests -- and giving him the name Space Karen.
"Rapid antigen tests trade sensitivity for speed," Dr. Bell wrote. "They return a result in
It didn't take long for the nickname of Space Karen to start making the rounds on the internet, prompting not only the term to trend but for the internet to do what it does best: make memes, crack wise, and have quite a bit of fun with the term. While COVID-19 itself is no laughing matter -- infection rates are trending upward worldwide causing another round of quarantines and shutdowns -- there were some pretty funny reactions to Musk being called a "Space Karen". You can read on for just a few.
And as for that SpaceX launch, while Musk wasn't able to attend in person due to his COVID-19 status, after being delayed from Saturday, November 14th to Sunday, November 15th due to weather, the launch went off smoothly with the SpaceX Crew Dragon arriving at the International Space Station early Monday morning.
What do you think about the internet dubbing Musk "Space Karen"? Let us know in the comments.
Photo by Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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