Elon Musk wasn’t the only celebrity in the control room at SpaceX’s Starship flight on Saturday.
As the mega-rocket fell out of communications while climbing toward space, the SpaceX livestream showed Elon Musk and his brother, Kimbal Musk, discussing with others in the Texas control room and waiting for a signal from Starship.
Kimbal Musk then bends down, just slightly off camera, and stands up with a blond toddler in his arms. The kid sure looks a lot like Elon Musk’s 3-year-old son, X Æ A-12.
X Æ A-12 is one of three children Elon Musk has with Grimes, whose legal name is Claire Boucher. The parents are now in the throes of a custody dispute.
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk quietly sued Grimes in September, accusing her of moving to California to “circumvent jurisdiction” of Texas courts and saying he wanted to “establish the parent-child relationship” between himself and the three children.
Grimes counter-sued three weeks later, asking for physical custody of their children and requesting Musk’s suit be thrown out.
She also petitioned for a restraining order that would prevent either parent from moving the children out of California without the written permission of all parties or a court order.
During the Starship launch, after a few seconds of holding him, Kimbal Musk put down the child, who then appeared to climb onto a chair between the two Musk brothers. He had a front-row seat to the tense situation at SpaceX.
Starship, it turned out, exploded just before reaching a position to glide around the planet for the first time ever. This was its second attempt to fly to space, circle Earth, and return to splash down in the ocean.
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