You never know who is watching online. That is the lesson a young woman named Naomi reportedly learned after she lost a NASA internship offer following a Twitter exchange with a member of a national space advisory group.
According to reports, Naomi posted an excited, expletive filled tweet announcing that she had been accepted into NASA’s internship program. The post picked up plenty of retweets and shares, but some users felt the language was too rough for a post about NASA.
One of those users was author Homer Hickam, who replied with a single word: “Language.” Naomi reportedly fired back with a crude response, apparently not realizing who she was talking to.
According to NBC 4, Hickam is one of more than two dozen people named to the newly created National Space Council Users Advisory Group. Soon after the exchange, Naomi reportedly lost her internship offer.
Hickam addressed the situation in a blog post and said he had nothing to do with the decision. He wrote that he deleted his comments and blocked the accounts involved, and that he believes the NASA hashtag used by her friends is what brought the exchange to the agency’s attention. He also said he does not hire or fire anyone at the agency.
Naomi later reached out to Hickam to apologize. He called the apology unnecessary but said he “heartily accepted” it and returned one of his own. Hickam said he is working to help her find a position in the aerospace industry and that he spoke with the people connected to her internship to make sure there would be no black mark on her record.
