A not-so-tactful scientist has seen her dream of joining NASA snatched away after she posted several foul-mouthed messages to Twitter while celebrating getting an internship at the space agency.
The woman, known as Naomi H, turned the social media platform blue this week after sharing the news of the job offer with the world.
“Everyone shut the f**k up. I got accepted for a NASA internship,” she wrote.
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Her tweet earned a reply from former NASA engineer and member of the National Space Council Homer Hickam, who gently chastised her for her turn of phrase.
“Language,” Hickam wrote.
“Suck my d**k and b***s I’m working for NASA,” replied Naomi.
“And I am on the National Space Council that oversees NASA,” Hickam shot back.
The exchange later went viral, forcing Naomi to make her account private. Her followers later revealed that NASA had withdrawn the offer, a turn of events for which many fingers of blame pointed at Hickam. This, he later said on his blog, was entirely the wrong interpretation.
“This I had nothing to do with nor could I since I do not hire and fire at the agency or have any say on employment whatsoever,” Hickam wrote in a blog post Tuesday. “As it turned out, it was due to the NASA hashtag her friends used that called the agency's attention to it long after my comments were gone.”
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Hickam is an aeronautics legend who was the subject of the film ‘October Sky,’ in which he was played by Jake Gyllenhaal. He said Naomi had apologized for her blue streak and added that he was trying to secure her another position in the aerospace industry.
Some commentators on Twitter were quick to say she got exactly what her language deserved. Others, meanwhile, were a little more forgiving.
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