elon musk, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin
© Reuters / Mike Blake; NASA
Head of Roscosmos couldn't resist giving thinly-veiled credit to their space endeavors by sticking with Elon Musk. The latter recently hailed Russia's rocket industry and its "best engines" currently traversing the Earth's orbit.

"It's hard to argue with Elon on it," tweeted Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin, sharing an appreciative tweet Musk published on Thursday.

"Russia has excellent rocket engineering and best engine currently flying," the entrepreneur said at the time, adding, hat a "reusable version" of the Angara rocket in particular "would be great."
Dmitry Rogozin tweek Elon Musk
© Dmitry Rogozin Twitter

Musk didn't seem to play into the attempt to generate 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."

SpaceX-built Crew Dragon took off on the six-day journey with the help of a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida last Saturday, receiving tight-lipped praise from Roscosmos officials.


NASA has long been relying on Russian rockets and spacecraft to ferry astronauts and cargo into the International Space Station since it retired its shuttle fleet in 2011. The Crew Dragon launch was part of a US attempt to wean itself off its reliance on Russian help.