Elon Musk has a 'very human side to him,' according to a NASA astronaut who completed a SpaceX mission

• Elon Musk has a "very human side to him," according to NASA astronaut Doug Hurley.

• Hurley's comments came ahead of a new Netflix documentary covering a historic SpaceX launch in 2020.

• In an interview with Fox News, Hurley discussed working with Musk and the new documentary.

NASA astronaut Doug Hurley reminisced on what it was like working with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk before he flew on a historic flight to space and back in 2020.

In an interview with Fox News, Hurley spoke about his impressions of Musk, the billionaire space race, and a new Netflix documentary, "Return to Space" which follows Hurley's journey and that of fellow astronaut Bob Behnken as they embarked on the first human SpaceX mission to the International Space Station.

In May 2020, Musk and SpaceX made history after the company successfully launched two astronauts into space aboard a Crew Dragon spaceship. Shortly after, the astronauts' ship docked at the International Space Station.

The mission marked the first time a commercial spaceship delivered humans into orbit and to the ISS.

According to Hurley, Musk had a "huge amount of concern" for him and Behnken's safety when preparing for the launch.

"He wanted to ensure that the mission would not only be successful but that we would come back to our families," Hurley told Fox. "It drove him to look at every single possible thing with the spacecraft to make sure that we come home safely," he added.

Hurley said one thing most people don't get to witness about Musk is his "human side." As the spaceflight edged closer, Hurley recalled Musk speaking to every employee, "even the interns," asking them about their concerns surrounding the mission.

"I think that's a very human side a lot of people don't get to see. What I witnessed was a man who was genuinely concerned about our well-being and our families. And I will always be thankful for that because I'm still here," Hurley said.

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Before the SpaceX flight, the US hadn't flown humans to space from American soil since 2011. Musk subsequently resurrected American crewed spaceflight for NASA but also kicked off a new era of commercial spaceflight with the 2020 mission.

One thing that "amazed" Hurley the most about Musk, however, is his "incredible grasp of the technical situation."

"You can talk to him about the spacecraft itself or an issue with the rocket — he wants to understand all of it. He's very hands-on," Hurley said. "You have engineers, literally the experts of the system, on site to address those questions," he added.

Despite Hurley's praise, Musk's public reputation is somewhat mixed.

His on-and-off romantic partner, the musician Grimes, recently described him in an interview with Vanity Fair as both "the love of my life" and someone who says "stupid shit." On the latter, Musk has consistently shown misunderstanding of how particular COVID-19 tests work and skepticism of public health measures, Insider previously reported. He also tweeted "the coronavirus panic is dumb" in March 2020. Two years on, the disease has killed nearly 1 million of his fellow Americans.

Musk recently joined the board of Twitter after steadily buying up the firm's shares and becoming its biggest shareholder. Some Twitter employees expressed annoyance at the development, with one changing their name to "elon musk is a racist demagogue with a god complex." Another said those protesting represented "a vocal minority" at Twitter, Insider reported.

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