NASA Intern Gets Canned After Raunchy Online Tweets

"Everyone shut the f--- up I got accepted for a NASA internship," an excited Twitter user wrote Monday. As of Thursday, the internship offer was no more, per BuzzFeed. "Suck my d--- and b---s I'm working at NASA," the user identified as "Naomi H" had responded to a commenter calling out her language. It turns out that commenter was Homer Hickam, the former NASA engineer and inspiration behind the 1999 Jake Gyllenhaal-led film October Sky, who thought he'd identify himself. "And I am on the National Space Council that oversees NASA," Hickam replied in a viral exchange, since deleted.

Hickam later confirmed the internship offer was revoked in a deleted blog post, but he said he had no role in the decision, reports Newsweek. It was the inclusion of "#NASA" by another user that alerted the agency to the tweets, Hickam said, adding he had replied to the tweet thinking Naomi "might get in trouble if NASA saw it." Still, he feels pretty bad about the whole thing. The pair exchanged apologies, and "after talking to her and looking at her resume, 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," Hickam wrote. (More NASA stories.)