NASA is looking into Elon Musk's marijuana usage and whether it might be 'a key concern'

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Elon Musk, Joe Rogan smoke marijuana during interview

Elon Musk and Joe Rogan share a joint while discussing plans for a Tesla airplane.

NASA is looking into the culture at SpaceX and Boeing to determine whether there might be "everything and anything that could impact safety" of the agency's astronauts, including Elon Musk's very public use of marijuana.

First reported by The Washington Post, the space agency is looking at a months-long review to understand and evalute the workplace culture of two of its most prominent contractors. The report states that the review was prompted by Musk's use of marijuana on "The Joe Rogan Podcast," in which he openly takes a hit from a joint and sips whiskey. California has approved the use of marijuana for recreational purposes, along with nine other states, Washington D.C. and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Jim Bridenstine, NASA's Administrator, told the news outlet that the goal is to make sure the public has trust in the agency's spaceflight program, especially in light of them getting closer to the return of crewed flights from U.S. soil. Manned test flights are slated to happen in 2019. “If I see something that’s inappropriate, the key concern to me is what is the culture that led to that inappropriateness and is NASA involved in that,” he told The Post. “As an agency we’re not just leading ourselves, but our contractors, as well. We need to show the American public that when we put an astronaut on a rocket, they’ll be safe.”

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Bridenstine also added that while he has "a lot of confidence" in the SpaceX team, "culture and leadership start at the top. Anything that would result in some questioning the culture of safety, we need to fix immediately."

In a statement to Fox News, NASA spokesperson Allard Beutel said: "We are excited to once again launch American astronauts on American rockets and spacecraft from American soil. We are focused on safe and successful commercial crew missions to the International Space Station. In the coming months, prior to the crew test flights of Crew Dragon and Starliner, NASA will be conducting a cultural assessment study in coordination with our commercial partners to ensure the companies are meeting NASA’s requirements for workplace safety, including the adherence to a drug-free environment. We fully expect our commercial partners to meet all workplace safety requirements in the execution of our missions and the services they provide the American people. As always, NASA will ensure they do so.”

SpaceX and Boeing have not yet responded to a request for comment for this story.

SpaceX's future success has become integral to the future of NASA, especially in light of the recent certification of its Falcon 9 rocket to be designated as a Category 3 Launch vehicle. In a statement, SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said: “LSP Category 3 certification is a major achievement for the Falcon 9 team and represents another key milestone in our close partnership with NASA. We are honored to have the opportunity to provide cost-effective and reliable launch services to the country’s most critical scientific payloads.”

On Monday, Musk tweeted that SpaceX would be changing the name of its upcoming commercial space vehicle to Starship, which Bridenstine retweeted. Retweets are often seen as a sign of endorsement, though Bridenstine did express any specific endorsement in his retweet.

In August, NASA announced the nine astronauts that will crew the test flights and first missions of the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, set for next year. Crew for the Starliner test flight are NASA astronauts Eric Boe and Nicole Aunapu-Mann and Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley have been selected to take part in the Crew Dragon test flight.

Boeing plans to do an uncrewed flight test of its CST-100 Starliner later this year or early next year. John Mulholland, vice president and program manager for Boeing’s Commercial Crew effort, explained that the earliest the company can “confidently” do a manned flight test will be in mid-2019. “Our commitment has always been to provide NASA and those crews the highest level of mission assurance,” he said in an August statement.

“SpaceX is targeting November 2018 for Crew Dragon’s first demonstration mission and April 2019 for Crew Dragon’s second demonstration mission, which will carry two NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station,” said Benji Reed, director of Crew Mission Management at SpaceX, in the statement.

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Separately, SpaceX has been responsible for bringing supply and cargo to the International Space Station.

Fox News' James Rogers contributed to this report. Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia