The SpaceX explosion’s echoing impact

The explosion investigation and launchpad repair seem sure to scuttle SpaceX’s aggressive launch plans this year. The company had hoped for as many as 18 rocket launches this year. It has had eight so far; last week’s would have made nine. Over all, SpaceX has had 27 successful launches of Falcon 9 rockets.

The Florida accident is also rippling through the insurance market. Insuring the risk of getting a satellite into space comes in two stages. The preflight insurance is intended to mainly cover the risk of damage to the rocket and satellite on their way to the launchpad. Premiums are a fraction of a percent.

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Jeff Bezos unveils giant new rocket to compete with SpaceX

Amazon.com Inc.    Chairman Jeff Bezos, renowned for keeping quiet about strategic goals for his fledgling space company Blue Origin LLC, on Monday reversed course by disclosing plans for a giant, reusable rocket — named after iconic 1960s astronaut John Glenn — and powerful enough to blast people as well as satellites into high-Earth orbit.

The New Glenn rocket would feature a cluster of seven main engines and stand more than 310 feet tall. If it flies by the end of the decade as intended, the largest version of the proposed booster could vault Blue Origin, based in Kent, Wash., into head-to-head commercial rivalry with Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, founded and run by another billionaire entrepreneur, Elon Musk.

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Tesla’s Head of Communications departs

Since Reyes’ departure from Tesla, Khobi Brooklyn, Director of Communications, became the most senior employee in the department and the de facto “Head of Global Communications”. We now learn that she is also leaving the automaker just a few months after Reyes.

As previously mentioned, Reyes has been VP of Communications at Tesla on two occasions. First from 2009 to 2012, when he left for a 2-year stint at Square, a financial service and mobile payment company. He then came back to Tesla in 2014. Brooklyn joined Tesla around the same time as Reyes (2009) and followed him to Square and back to Tesla again in 2014.

The company didn’t hire or promote another Vice President when Reyes left in March, but sources familiar with the situation told us that the company’s General Counsel and Elon Musk’s former divorce attorney, Todd Maron, among others had oversight and executive responsibilities of the communications department.

We asked Tesla for a comment on the situation, but our request went unanswered. The company rarely comments on employee matters.

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Tesla’s Lenders Place SolarCity In A Leper Colony

Summary

  • Tesla’s revolving credit lenders want no part of SolarCity.
  • They won’t allow Tesla to guarantee any SolarCity debt, and they’ve made it difficult for Tesla to downstream borrowed funds.
  • What? You didn’t know that? I’m not surprised; Tesla did its best to hide those facts.
  • The recent SolarCity bond offering is a new low - huge red flags, and tremendous potential for more insider looting.
  • But first, a quick look at the Tesla fire sale in progress. Get an extra $1,000 savings on your new Tesla at the link I provide. (You’re welcome!).

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Tesla’s New Lease Financing Disclosure: Who Writes This Stuff?

Beyond the minimal short-term effect of the new announced financing agreement, the fact that Tesla continues to choose every way possible to “spin” its narrative in a dissembling way is another red flag for Tesla investors. The Deutsche Bank financing agreement is just a drop in the bucket of all of the capital that Tesla will need over the next three years but the company just couldn’t resist suggesting otherwise. What’s amazing to me is that there is also not a lot more scrutiny about Tesla’s claims that its May 2016 financing was supposed to be all the capital needed to support “full production” of the Model 3 and to complete any additional investment needed for the Gigafactory.

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Tesla Shareholder Sues … DON’T BURN OUR MONEY TO SAVE YOUR CRAPPY SOLAR CO.

Elon Musk‘s trying to save his legacy off the backs of Tesla shareholders … so claims a Tesla shareholder who’s suing the icon.

The shareholder claims Elon’s move to infuse his failing SolarCity with $2.6 billion of Tesla stock is outrageous, self-involved and irresponsible.

According to the docs … Elon’s trying to run Tesla like a privately held company, moving money around not because it’s right for the car company but to build his own legacy of changing the world.

The lawsuit claims Elon doesn’t have his eye on the ball … that Tesla itself is operating in the red, burning cash, and he should focus on building electric cars. The stockholder calls Elon’s obsession with SolarCity “a dangerous distraction.”

The shareholder says SolarCity is a stinker … the company went on the auction block recently and didn’t attract a single bidder.

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How Elon Musk Used A Broken Marketplace To Play Us All

Elon Musk has controlling stakes in 3 companies: Tesla, SolarCity, and SpaceX. Tesla and SolarCity are publicly traded. SpaceX is not publicly traded. This document’s focus will be soley on the financial interdependencies of the companies. There are also incestuous business practices, and nepotism within the leadership of each company Musk controls.

We hope to illustrate simply and clearly the immense risk the  US government has taken with your money by giving it to a man who is essentially telling them what they want to hear while picking their pockets doing it.

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