A Woman Was Fired From NASA After They Saw Her Tweet: “Suck My Dick And Balls I’m Working At NASA”

Following the interaction, Twitter user @NaomiH_official has locked her Twitter account.

On Monday, Twitter user @NaomiH_official tweeted that she had received an internship at NASA.

One person who replied to the tweet was Homer Hickam, an author, Vietnam veteran, and the NASA engineer who trained the first Japanese astronauts. Hickam replied “language” to Naomi’s use of the word fuck.

Naomi then replied, telling Hickam, “Suck my dick and balls I’m working at NASA.” Of course, Hickam pointed out that he works on the council that oversees NASA.

The interaction, which has now been deleted, was screenshot by others and went viral.

A furry became an intern for NASA and got instantly fired after telling someone on their council to suck their dick because this is 2018. https://t.co/XL7jvCKFFj

The screenshot made its way onto 4chan, where the user became the target of transphobic trolls.

Naomi, who has now locked her Twitter account, was criticized for not knowing who Hickam was.

@CatlinNyaa I can't believe @NASA gave an internship to someone who didn't know who Homer Hickem was.

And people said that her firing was an example of inappropriate behavior online.

There's a lesson in this. https://t.co/0gAxkb6dPu

An intern told an overseer of NASA to suck her "dick and balls", and there are actually people in the comments who think firing her was an abuse of power LOL https://t.co/D0YVFmOIJX

Kids, be careful on the Internet & don't do dumb things. If you're working for a public institution you'll have to (like it or not) be more conscious with words Homer was cool abt the situation but sadly other people weren't and they were the ones who insisted the girl be fired. https://t.co/0WnYp9TOad

Others defended her and criticized Hickam for his perceived behavior toward a woman, and for getting her fired.

Wow, Homer Hickam is kind of a jerk. Naomi did the right thing, this hectoring old dullard needs to be told off more. https://t.co/OUydOXzhAi

Naomi’s Twitter avatar appeared to indicate she was a furry, which has been the focus of many when discussing this story and the privacy she should have had on a personal Twitter account.

I hope they get their internship back. Being told by an old white dude to mind your language is irritating as fuck. https://t.co/HpB8BltHwh

Following the controversy, Hickam published a blog post in which he stated that he was not responsible for the intern losing her job. he has since deleted the blog.

I'm a Vietnam vet and not at all offended by the F-word. However, when I saw NASA and the word used together, it occurred to me that this young person might get in trouble if NASA saw it so I tweeted to her one word: "Language" and intended to leave it at that.

Soon, her friends took umbrage and said a lot of unkind things but long after I was gone as I immediately deleted my comments and blocked all concerned.

Later, I learned she had lost her offer for an internship with NASA. 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. 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.

In fact, Hickam said the woman apologized, and he approached NASA about getting her job back.

She reached out to me with an unnecessary apology which I heartily accepted and returned with my own. After talking to her, I am certain she deserves a position in the aerospace industry and I'm doing all I can to secure her one that will be better than she lost. I have also talked to the folks that had to do with her internship and made absolutely certain that there will be no black mark on her record.

Hickam declined to comment further when contacted by BuzzFeed News.

Following the blog post, many of Naomi’s supporters have tried to clarify what happened and have praised Hickam.

The full Homer Hickham story is a ride. As usual, furry Twitter simultaneously makes a dumb situation worse while never actually posting the full story. Y'all. https://t.co/r1EsiMPkLd

However, it remains unclear if Naomi has regained her internship.

What's sad is that Homer Hickam is receiving backlash abt this and he actually didn't have anything to do with her being fired & is in fact trying to get her internship reinstated. He even explained he wasn't trying to be rude, he was just trying to say "hey NASA will get upset" https://t.co/43fyxDtx6C

BuzzFeed News has reached out to NASA for comment.

CORRECTION

Homer Hickam’s name was misspelled in an earlier version of this post.

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