Hosts of MSNBC's The Weekend were seen celebrating the loss of a SpaceX rocket - with one even breaking out into song.
It happened after 'dangerous debris' were sent streaming down from the skies of Florida a few days before - leaving Symone Sanders, Alicia Menendez and Michael Steele to relish in the unmanned mission's failure.
All three are set to assume a now Joy Reid-less hour at the network next month, as part of a sprawling lineup change brought on by their bosses.
The Comcast-owned station has shed more than half its audience in three years, amid some increasingly opinionated coverage that's often spawned pushback.
Sanders, Menendez, and Steele did not appear too concerned with such a response on The Weekend Saturday, as they reacted with glee to the explosion.
They did so due to its connection to Elon Musk, who sanctioned the flight test weeks after another involving the same Starship rocket also ended in a fiery mess.
The trio thus advised SpaceX's CEO to try out a new line of work - at least when it comes to his current post in government.
'Why did they let him put this rocket up in the air after they were still investigating the last explosion?' Sanders-Townsend asked initially - after singing what appeared to be ill-advised rendition of Wicked's 'Defying Gravity.'
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Hosts of MSNBC's The Weekend were seen celebrating the loss of a SpaceX rocket - with Symone Sanders going as far as to break into literal song, with what appeared to be ill-advised rendition of Wicked's 'Defying Gravity.'
It happened after 'dangerous debris' were sent streaming down from the skies of Florida a few days before (pictured) - leaving Sanders, Alicia Menendez and Michael Steele to relish in the failure
After some guffawing and giggles from all three, Steele offered a prescription for what he presented as a case of distraction affecting the increasingly political tech exec.
'My suggestion for Elon - His response to all of this was "rockets are hard."
'Mr. Musk, if they’re so hard, why don’t you go back to your day job and work that out and leave those of us who do government to do government because you can’t do both. And clearly, you’re failing right now at both.
'Your rockets are blowing up and the government is blowing up,' he went on, after Rachel Maddow already dedicated an entire segment of her show to the SpaceX Starship rocket explosion.
'So I suggest you concentrate on the one thing you think you know more about and do that,' Steele went on.
'And leave the rest to those of us who know a little bit of how to provide services to people who need them and make the government function.'
Steele served as the lieutenant governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007, a stint tainted with gun violence.
A Republican, he served as chair of the Republican National Committee from 2009 until 2011 - the first African-American to do so.
All three are set to assume a now Joy Reid-less hour at the network next month, as part of a sprawling lineup change brought on by their bosses
Their response to the explosion, meanwhile, stemmed from the emerging political career of SpaceX's CEO, Elon Musk (seen here at a meeting with Senate Republicans in Washington on Wednesday - the day before the failed mission)
He signed on as an analyst for MSNBC when his tenure came to an end, and endorsed Joe Biden in 2020.
The endorsement came following four years of Steele's open opposition to Donald Trump - a stance he has maintained in the five years since.
He, Sanders-Townsend, and Menendez will soon transition to the 7pm slot, as Musk continues his bid to optimize the federal government within a period of just 18 months.
'Tonight, Elon Musk blew something up and disrupted the lives of thousands of Americans,' Maddow said of the SpaceX mishap on Thursday.
'In a statement, SpaceX said that, "During Starship’s ascent burn, the vehicle experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly,"' she went on.
The host then engaged in a metaphor meant to criticize Musk’s recent slew of government cuts and layoffs.
'Rapid unscheduled disassembly is kind of Elon Musk’s specialty these days,' she said, with a smug smirk on her face.
'Especially in a way that really messes with other people through no fault of their own.'
Rachel Maddow got in on the action as well, poking fun at Musk with a pointed metaphor lampooning his bid to streamline the federal government
SpaceX's eighth suborbital flight test follows the rockets last flight test in January, which also sent debris careening back to earth.
An ongoing probe brought by the Federal Aviation Administration found the January Starship explosion was caused by leaking fuel.
The cause of the more recent failure, meanwhile, remains to be seen. Neither craft was manned and no injuries have been reported.
