From Tesla and SpaceX to adulation, Elon Musk’s rocket hits stratosphere

San Francisco — Whether you find him admirable or obnoxious, Elon Musk is having a fantastic year.

SpaceX, the company he founded in 2002, blasted two US astronauts to the International Space Station in late May and brought them safely home in a historic splashdown on Sunday, heralding a new age of private-sector space travel. Tesla, his electric carmaker, recently celebrated its fourth consecutive quarter of profit and may soon join the S&P 500 Index. This year’s share rally has made the California company the world’s most valuable caremaker, with a market value of about $267bn as of Friday’s close.

And then there’s Musk himself. The 49-year-old SA immigrant, who is a Los Angeles-based celebrity as much as a Silicon Valley CEO, is now the world’s 10th richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

While the CEOs of the Big Four tech companies — Amazon.com, Apple, Facebook and Google — were derided as “Cyber Barons” during a grilling by Congress last week on antitrust issues, Musk basked in Style-section treatment in the Sunday New York Times.

It’s a remarkable turnaround from the dark days of 2018, when Tesla struggled to ramp up production of the Model 3 sedan, scores of executives quit and Musk was sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over his infamous “go private” tweet.

Coronavirus controversy

Since then, he’s not endeared himself to everyone. Musk has come under fire for downplaying the coronavirus pandemic, tweeting in early March that “coronavirus panic is dumb” and then predicting the US would probably have “close to zero new cases” by end-April. In California, where Tesla’s huge car plant employs about 10,000 workers, Musk defied public health authorities in Alameda County by closing down the plant late and reopening it early, daring anyone to arrest him.

Yet in a year in which much of the nation is hunkered down or retrenching in the face of surging virus infections and widespread economic anxiety, Musk is ebullient and expanding. Tesla, which has 55,000 employees globally, is hiring and is building a new car plant in Austin, Texas, for its forthcoming electric bakkie. Musk suggested on Friday that Tesla’s workforce could grow to 65,000 by year’s end.

“We’re full of admiration” for the whole team at Tesla, James Anderson of Scottish money manager Baillie Gifford, Tesla’s second-largest shareholder after Musk himself, said. “What they are doing is a rare but central shaft of light in a dark world.”

Baillie Gifford declined to comment on the success of SpaceX, in which it’s also an investor. Musk’s privately held company, which is in the midst of raising $1bn in funds, is among the most valuable venture-backed US companies.

SpaceX successes

SpaceX — formally Space Exploration Technologies — has been best known for launching the Falcon 9 reusable rocket for customers that include commercial satellite operators, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the US military. The successful flight of astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley marks the first time that SpaceX has flown humans — a huge proof point for a company founded with the goal of colonising Mars.

“Welcome back to Planet Earth and thanks for flying SpaceX,” said mission control, after the astronauts in the Dragon capsule splashed down into the Gulf of Mexico. Congratulations poured in via Twitter from President Donald Trump and his predecessor Barack Obama, as well as competitors such as Blue Origin and Boeing.

Now that the “Demo-1” test flight is complete, SpaceX can begin operational trips for Nasa. The Crew-1 mission is planned for late September.

SpaceX is also testing Starship, the next-generation rocket that will fly humans to the Moon and then Mars. It’s also preparing to launch its own space-based internet service, Starlink. And later this month, Musk vows to give a “progress update” on Neuralink, his brain-machine interface startup.

Bloomberg