It has been a busy month for SpaceX and Tesla supremo Elon Musk. The world’s richest man grabbed headlines at least three times in May. His move to buy Twitter, driven by a well-known fondness for the social media platform and his support for “free speech”, came via a US$44 million bid.
To raise funds for the purchase he sold some of his shares in the electric car company Tesla, raising US$3.5 billion after taxes. As a result, Tesla stock price fell just as Twitter’s dramatically rose. However, later in the month Musk appeared to be having second thoughts, most notably due to his questioning of how many Twitter accounts are fake spam/robotic ones. Twitter claims these represent just five per cent of its users. Musk now faces being sued by angry Twitter investors for his dithering, and faces being sanctioned by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for allegedly failing to announce his increased shareholding in Twitter.
Elon Musk Courtesy: Wikipedia
Musk’s second headline of the month was one he would have preferred to have kept quiet. A SpaceX private jet flight attendant accused him of indecently exposing himself to her during a massage on a jet in 2016 while making sexual advances. The woman was later released from employment at the firm with a US$250,000 pay-off. Musk did not deny the pay-off but he has denied the allegation of sexual impropriety.
At the time of the alleged incident he was just getting over a second divorce from his second wife, actress Tallulah Riley, whom the magnate married twice. He reportedly drew Riley’s interest in him by showing her a photograph of his SpaceX Falcon rocket. Musk is expected to be able to ride out the “Elongate” storm (as dubbed by him) so long as no others come forward to make similar allegations.
The billionaire rounded off the month with news that SpaceX is planning to issue more stock to fund development of its Superheavy/Starship and the related Human Landing System (HLS) lunar lander for NASA. At the current price of US$70 per share, the sale is expected to raise just over US$1.7 billion, valuing SpaceX at US$127 billion. The private company is also selling US$750 million of its stock to company insiders and existing shareholders.
SpaceX is awaiting a final go-ahead from the FAA to launch the Superheavy/Starship combination from the Boca Chica site in Texas. The FAA has delayed its final assessment of the environmental impact of the test launches, which attracted some 18,000 public submissions. A final conclusion was expected on 31 May. If this is achieved, there is a strong possibility that the privately developed, part-reusable SuperHeavy/Starship combination will beat NASA’s equivalent heavy-lift rocket, the much delayed expendable SLS, into orbit. This would be politically embarrassing for NASA and, to a lesser extent, for its partner SpaceX too.
SpaceX Starship-based Human Landing System (HLS) for NASA. Courtesy: NASA
Comment by David Todd: It is interesting how Elon Musk sold his own Tesla stock to fund his planned acquisition of Twitter – assuming the deal goes ahead now – but did not sell his SpaceX shares (SpaceX sold its own shares to meet its funding needs). It is a sign of where his heart really lies.
