Elon Musk points to recent SpaceX launch to mock Russia's suggestion the US might have to fly into space on 'broomsticks' after rocket sales stop

• Russia announced it would stop selling rocket engines to the US after American sanctions.
• Musk bit back at the Russian space chief's suggestion the US fly to space on "broomsticks."

Elon Musk took a jab at Russia's recent suggestion the US would have to get to space on broomsticks after the sale of Russian rocket engines was halted.

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said on Thursday that Russia would no longer supply rocket engines to the US after President Joe Biden's sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

"In a situation like this, we can't supply the United States with our world's best rocket engines," Rogozin said on state-run TV. "Let them fly on something else, their broomsticks, I don't know what."

Hours after Rogozin's comments, SpaceX launched 47 of its own Starlink satellites into orbit using the company's Falcon 9 rocket.

Musk responded to a video of SpaceX's launch on Twitter with a screenshot of Rogozin's comments highlighted along with the words "American Broomstick" and four US flags.

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2022

It's not the first time Musk has confronted Rogozin.

When Rogozin criticized Musk for offering Starlink internet in Ukraine, Musk tweeted: "Ukraine civilian Internet was experiencing strange outages – bad weather perhaps? – so SpaceX is helping fix it."

After Starlink went live in Ukraine over the weekend, one engineer told Insider that he was using the system for emergencies in case his regular internet connection was cut off.

Starlink, SpaceX's satellite internet service, now has more than 2,000 satellites in orbit. Musk warned Starlink users in Ukraine to turn on the system "only when needed" because they could be targeted amid the invasion.

Are you a Starlink user in Ukraine? What's your story? Get in touch with this reporter via email (kduffy@insider.com) or Twitter (kate__duffy).