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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's use of cannabis during an interview with Joe Rogan has led to safety reviews at both SpaceX and Boeing:
In addition to spurring problems for the car company Tesla, Elon Musk's puff of marijuana in September will also have consequences for SpaceX. On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that NASA will conduct a "safety review" of both of its commercial crew companies, SpaceX and Boeing. The review was prompted, sources told the paper, because of recent behavior by Musk, including smoking marijuana on a podcast.
According to William Gerstenmaier, NASA's chief human spaceflight official, the review will be "pretty invasive" and involve interviews with hundreds of employees at various levels of the companies, across multiple worksites. The review will begin next year, and interviews will examine "everything and anything that could impact safety," Gerstenmaier told the Post.
[...] One source familiar with NASA's motivations said the agency has grown weary of addressing questions about SpaceX's workplace culture, from the long hours its employees work to Musk's behaviors on social media. "SpaceX is the frat house," this source said. "And NASA is the old white guy across the street yelling at them to 'Get off my lawn.'"
The "Big Falcon/Fucking Rocket" (BFR) has been renamed. The upper stage will be called Starship, while the booster will be called Super Heavy:
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted late Monday night that he has renamed the company's largest (and yet to be built) BFR rocket to Starship. Or more precisely, the spaceship portion will be called Starship. The rocket booster used to propel Starship from Earth's gravitational grasp will be called Super Heavy.
Plans to add a "mini-BFS" second stage to the Falcon 9 were scrapped less than 2 weeks after they were announced. Yet another design change for the BFR/Starship was also hinted at:
In a series of tweets Nov. 17, Musk said that SpaceX was no longer pursuing an upgrade to its existing Falcon 9 vehicle that would make the vehicle's second stage reusable. The company's focus, he said, would instead be on speeding up work on SpaceX's heavy-lift reusable launch vehicle formally known as Big Falcon Rocket, or BFR. "Accelerating BFR instead," Musk said. "New design is very exciting! Delightfully counter-intuitive." [...] Musk, in his latest tweets, said no major changes to the Falcon 9 were now on the table. "Yes, no upgrades planned for F9," he wrote. "Minor tweaks to improve reliability only, provided NASA & USAF are supportive."
Incidentally, SpaceX raised $250 million with its first loan instead of the $500-750 million the company previously sought.
Finally, NASA's associate administrator Stephen Jurczyk told Business Insider that the Space Launch System (SLS) would eventually be retired in favor of SpaceX's upcoming rocket (formerly known as BFR) and Blue Origin's New Glenn (Blue Origin is also planning an successor called New Armstrong, but no further details have been announced about the rocket). However, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine denied that SLS would be cancelled in 2022 "or any foreseeable date":
NASA is building a giant rocket ship to return astronauts to the moon and, later on, ferry the first crews to and from Mars. But agency leaders are already contemplating the retirement of the Space Launch System (SLS), as the towering and yet-to-fly government rocket is called, and the Orion space capsule that'll ride on top. NASA is anticipating the emergence of two reusable and presumably more affordable mega-rockets that private aerospace companies are creating. Those systems are the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR), which is being built by Elon Musk's SpaceX; and the New Glenn, a launcher being built by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin."I think our view is that if those commercial capabilities come online, we will eventually retire the government system, and just move to a buying launch capacity on those [rockets]," Stephen Jurczyk, NASA's associate administrator, told Business Insider at The Economist Space Summit on November 1.
However, Jim Bridenstine, the administrator of NASA, appears to have publicly denied his colleague's statement. "In case there is any confusion, @NASA will NOT be retiring @NASA_SLS in 2022 or any foreseeable date. It is the backbone of America's return to the Moon with international and commercial partners," Bridenstine tweeted on Monday, following the initial publication of this story on Saturday.
Musk cannabis story also at Engadget, TechCrunch, and The Verge. BFR name change story also at BBC. Falcon 9 reusability story also at Ars Technica, Bloomberg, and Engadget.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @01:10PM (23 children)
An executive smokes a doobie? An executive who is not actually designing or building anything? That is cause for safety concerns? What about the countless executives who are getting drunk off their asses on a regular basis? For that matter, the government employees - say, at NASA - who drink or partake in cannabis?
FFS, people, keep your eyes on the prize. NASA hasn't been able to manage the development of a feasible (or cost effective) new rocket. Let the creative people feed their muses and drag the rest of us into the 21st century.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Nuke on Wednesday November 21 2018, @01:33PM (14 children)
Yes it is. In fact Musk does not design or build anything, he directs people who do, and is the company figurehead and main representative; that is the nature of his job. Therefore in a public interview he is at work, he is supposed to be doing his job.
As for people who work for NASA, government etc, getting drunk, it does not matter if it is in their own time. OTOH if they are drunk/stoned/high at work they should indeed be sacked, I'd have no sympathy. In fact in my own industry we do have blood tests for drink and drugs at work.
Whether his judgement was affected or not, his attitude stinks and public judgement of the man matters anyway. His behaviour is on a level with Richard Stallman's picking at his feet and eating it during a televised interview. We are now in an era where even smoking tobacco in a working environment has become unacceptable. The man stinks. I have a senior engineering post in the nuclear industry, and I would not now place a contract with his company.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 21 2018, @01:51PM (5 children)
All I can say is, lighten up Francis. This isn't the 1930's and that movie isn't playing anywhere anymore. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028346/ [imdb.com]
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @04:03PM (4 children)
Good. Then your doc can do all the drugs he wants to, also. As can your airline pilot. As can your nuclear power plant control engineer.
Glad we got that settled.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @04:28PM (3 children)
Oh thanks, you solved the problem. You just mentioned those that should have special ethical rules. Luckily Elon and Stallman is neither.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday November 21 2018, @04:55PM
Alternatively, the surgeon or airline pilot can smoke a fat blunt while on a podcast or in their own free time, but not during surgery or when flying a plane.
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(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday November 21 2018, @05:58PM (1 child)
"special ethical rules"
Why? The ethics should be the same for everyone. Don't report for duty impaired. That's really pretty simple, isn't it? People who have a problem with that simple rule aren't going to find themselves in responsible positions. Seriously - you can look around any town, and find some number of people who are known to be "good workers", but never get ahead because they show up drunk, high, or whatever. Or, they just miss days, because they are hungover. No one is going to put a scalpel in their hands, and ask them to perform brain surgery on you.
Somehow, I don't see an occasional toke impairing Musk's performance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 23 2018, @03:44AM
Okay fine, I'm smart enough to make rules that apply to everyone: DON'T ENDANGER OTHER PEOPLES LIVES!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @02:02PM
This. This is why people freaked out over it. About time they and others get an actual safety review.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by takyon on Wednesday November 21 2018, @02:03PM
Musk has the Bill Clinton defense, puffed but didn't really inhale.
The cannabis issue is obviously... overblown.
Also, the U.S. Air Force apparently decided that they don't care [thehill.com]. But NASA wants to dredge this up? Something stinks, and it's not the Musk.
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(Score: 2) by crafoo on Wednesday November 21 2018, @03:11PM
Actually, everything you wrote is fairly ridiculous. Musk gets it done. Maybe stop wailing and gnashing your teeth and start emulating him. If people work very, very hard they might aspire to become a somewhat pale shadow of him. Which, on the whole, would be an amazing boon to our country.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @03:44PM
You sure you wanna go with the Homer Simpson credibility?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @04:49PM (1 child)
you're what's wrong with this country.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday November 21 2018, @06:47PM
Do you really want an answer?
Do you think SN's servers could handle it?
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @06:50PM
So you're saying you don't like his attitude, and that how the public feels about an executive warrants a safety inspection? Those things sound more like concerns for shareholders, not the government.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday November 22 2018, @02:28PM
So what does that have to do with NASA? Have the SpaceX board of directors give him the slap on the wrist he obviously deserves and get back to work. And if you ever want a long term solution to the alleged safety concerns brought up, just attach massive financial penalties to any frivolous attempts for one aerospace company to use these procedures to obstruct the progress of other aerospace companies' work. This is a thing that has been going on for decades and has nothing to do with legitimate concern for safety.
Oh, look, yet another incident I don't care about. There is a solution here - disregard the judgments of people who care that much about foot picking in public that they're willing to make bad decisions.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 21 2018, @02:12PM (7 children)
During an interview. If he had been drinking alcohol during that interview, I'm sure the same reaction would have happened.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by inertnet on Wednesday November 21 2018, @03:48PM (6 children)
Well, he drank alcohol during the interview. And didn't inhale as far as I could tell, it looked more like a dare to me. I didn't like him much before, but that interview gained him a lot of respect from me.
What seems worse to me is that he appears to need pills to be able to sleep.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday November 21 2018, @05:06PM (5 children)
Specifically, Ambien, the same drug that may have caused Roseanne's downfall.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/17/musk-barr-show-ambien-tweeting-is-becoming-a-popular-excuse.html [cnbc.com]
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/17/ambien-elon-musk-roseanne-celebrities-blame-sedative-behaviour [theguardian.com]
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(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday November 21 2018, @07:00PM (4 children)
Leading to the best company response to a PR issue ever!
While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication. [theguardian.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday November 21 2018, @07:42PM (3 children)
It's a cute statement, but it belies the fact that their product seems to fuck people up. Much worse than cannabis.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday November 21 2018, @08:06PM (2 children)
Meh, I take Ambien. You just can't drink alcohol with it...
(Score: 4, Funny) by takyon on Wednesday November 21 2018, @09:01PM (1 child)
OMG, that explains everything!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday November 22 2018, @02:51AM
Hey now, I already apologized for calling Buzzard a carrion-eater.
I thought the bitch was human!