SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has reiterated his admiration for Russian rocket engineering, giving credit where it was due and responding to allegations of Moscow’s ‘passive aggressive’ reaction to the flight of his Crew Dragon to the ISS.

“Russia has excellent rocket engineering & best engine currently flying,” Musk declared, noting that a “reusable version” of the Angara rocket in particular “would be great.”

Russia has excellent rocket engineering & best engine currently flying. Reusable version of their new Angara rocket would be great. https://t.co/6RLvf5R4ni — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2019

The Tesla billionaire was responding to a somewhat shade-throwing piece by Ars Technica, which framed Roscosmos as ‘threatened’ by the newly-invigorated American space program.

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Their evidence for this deep psychological profile, alleging a Russian inferiority complex on seeing the shiny new Dragon next to their reliable, Soviet-vintage Soyuz? A Russia-based space expert’s comments and a Roscosmos tweet congratulating NASA on the successful docking, that underscored the fact that “flight safety must be above reproach.”

Yes, but an engine shouldn’t count until it flies — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2019

Musk didn’t seem to play into the attempt to manufacture a rocket rivalry and, referring to his Raptor engine recently beating the chamber pressure of Russia’s RD-180, reiterated that “an engine shouldn’t count until it flies.”

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