SpaceX is pulling out all the stops to prevent Dish and other wireless companies from using the same radio frequencies as its internet-from-space Starlink satellites. Today, in a rare media call with reporters, SpaceX representatives reiterated how damaging they believe it would be for Starlink users if the Federal Communications Commission were to open up the 12GHz frequency band — which SpaceX’s satellites currently use — to other terrestrial uses like 5G.

“Essentially, the band would become unusable,” David Goldman, senior director of satellite policy at SpaceX, said during the press call. “It would potentially end services for customers.”

Dish hopes to use the spectrum to build out its new 5G network and has argued the deployment would be a win for consumer internet access.

SpaceX’s concerns began back in January of 2021, when the FCC opened up the possibility of using the 12GHz band for other uses beyond its current capabilities. SpaceX and other satellite operators, including Dish Network, have been relying on the 12GHz band for years to operate their satellites and, in SpaceX’s case, its Starlink mega-constellation. But when the FCC put out the call, Dish and a company called RS Access, which is backed by billionaire Michael Dell, came up with studies for ways they could use 12GHz for terrestrial 5G use.

Recently, SpaceX has made it abundantly clear the company does not want the FCC to open up the 12GHz band to 5G. The company filed a letter with the FCC arguing that allowing 12GHz for 5G use would cause Starlink users relying on the band to experience harmful interference 77 percent of the time, as well as total outages of the service 74 percent of the time. The company also sent out an email to Starlink users, encouraging them to send messages to the FCC and relevant lawmakers to urge them to stop making any changes to the 12GHz band. SpaceX claims that approximately 100,000 people sent messages after that prompt went out — and the company argues that the lack of public support for Dish means the expanded spectrum isn’t necessary.

“We haven’t seen anything from either Dish or Dell where they’ve been able to get any customers to file in support of their service,” Goldman said. “Likely, that is because they don’t really have a service. This is a spectrum speculation play, and it is not really about providing service. This is about lining their pockets with new spectrum rights at the expense of the people who currently use the band.”

Dish is eagerly looking for more spectrum it can put to use for wireless internet as it builds out a nationwide 5G network. The service, which has launched in 120 cities so far across the US, has to reach 70 percent of the US by June 2023 to comply with obligations to the FCC; otherwise, the company faces steep fines. Its network currently reaches only 22 percent of the population.

SpaceX’s concerns about the 12GHz band are exaggerated and wrong, according to Dish, RS Access, and a consortium of other companies known as the 5G for 12 GHz Coalition. They’ve argued that SpaceX sent a “manipulated filing” to the FCC about the kind of interference Starlink users would experience. “This tactic, which is commonly used by Elon Musk, is not only disingenuous, but it promulgates an anti-5G narrative that is harmful to American consumers who deserve greater competition, connectivity options and innovation,” the Coalition wrote in a statement sent to The Verge.

Fighting against that narrative, SpaceX is arguing that RS Access’ own study found that 5G use of the 12GHz band would cause interference. “Starlink terminals within the 5G coverage area typically suffered an exceedance,” the study said, according to a new SpaceX filing with the FCC. SpaceX claims that this means it is a unanimous technical finding that using 12GHz for 5G would cause disruption.

SpaceX also had multiple prominent Starlink users on today’s media call explain how much the internet satellite service has benefited them. SpaceX says it has more than 400,000 active Starlink users but that the service potentially reaches millions of people.

“We are optimistic that this is going to go our way, and the FCC is going to maintain the existing successful rule,” Goldman said. “But what the technical studies show is that if that were not the case, that would be hugely detrimental to the millions of people who use these services.”

This afternoon, SpaceX successfully launched its 32nd Falcon 9 mission of 2022, officially breaking the company’s own record for orbital launches conducted in a single year. And since it’s only July, there’s still plenty of year left to push that record even higher.

SpaceX has been steadily increasing its launch cadence each year — aside from a dip in 2019. For 2021, the company pulled off 31 launches, the most it had ever done, which also made SpaceX the most prolific American launch provider by far.

At the beginning of 2022, SpaceX set an incredibly ambitious goal of launching 52 missions over the course of the year. That number was revealed by a NASA safety advisory panel in January, with a word of caution that SpaceX should still strive to maintain safety amid the increased pace. “NASA and SpaceX will have to be watchful during 2022 that they’re not victims of their success,” Sandy Magnus, a former NASA astronaut and member of NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, said during the January meeting.

But so far, SpaceX has been sticking to its schedule, with nothing but seamless missions this year. Ironically, SpaceX had originally hoped to launch today’s missions on Thursday but stopped the countdown short after an abort was triggered less than a minute before takeoff. It was a rare abort for SpaceX, which hasn’t had to cut a countdown short in many months due to a technical issue. The company was able to get off the ground today, however, after an uninterrupted countdown.

One key factor that allows for such a busy launch schedule is that, in a majority of SpaceX’s launches this year, SpaceX is serving as its own customer. The company is using these launches to flesh out its massive internet-from-space Starlink constellation, lofting batches of up to 53 satellites at a time (though the numbers vary from launch to launch). Today’s flight out of Vandenberg Space Force Base in California put up an additional 46 Starlink satellites. The company currently has roughly 2,600 Starlink satellites in orbit.

Even without the Starlink launch, SpaceX has had plenty of other missions to keep the company busy. Thanks to its partnership with NASA, SpaceX periodically sends Dragon capsules — carrying cargo and people — to the International Space Station. The company also has its Transporter missions, in which various small satellites are packed together and deployed during a single mission. All of that, on top of SpaceX’s commercial customers and launches for the Defense Department, create a busy manifest.

Nearly all of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets that have launched this year have been vehicles that have previously flown before, as the company continues to master landing and reusing its rockets. SpaceX is also exclusively flying on the Block 5 version of its Falcon 9, which is optimized for reuse. Today’s rocket did successfully land on one of SpaceX’s drone ships after takeoff, marking the 125th overall landing of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket.

Now that SpaceX has beat its record, the company is still moving full steam ahead. There’s already another mission set for Sunday, July 24th, out of Florida, to launch another batch of Starlink satellites.

It took less than a day and a half for more than 400 SpaceX employees to sign onto an open letter criticizing CEO Elon Musk after it was posted and shared by some of their co-workers in an internal chat. Just 32 hours after it was shared, the internal landing page for the document was taken offline, around the same time that a group of employees was fired for their involvement in crafting and sharing the letter, a move that may have been a violation of labor law.

The open letter first went live on an internal landing page at noon Eastern, and then it was shared by a handful of employees to roughly 10 chat rooms in Microsoft Teams as well as one email list. The contents were bold: the employees asserted that Musk’s behavior in recent weeks had become a source of embarrassment and a distraction for the company. The letter writers offered suggestions for ways that SpaceX could distance itself from Musk’s Twitter presence as well as do better to hold executives and those who commit sexual harassment accountable.

An employee who helped craft the letter but wished to remain anonymous claimed that “a large number of employees across a bunch of demographics and roles and levels helped write the letter.” Employees were given the option to sign onto the document by taking a survey or scanning a QR code.

The largest Teams channel where the document was shared had roughly 2,600 members, largely filled with engineers, while the other Teams channels were relatively small. The writers also had plans to distribute a stack of physical copies of the letter, which also had QR codes for people to scan, around production and food service areas. But no one was brave enough to hand those out before firings began, according to one of the people involved. There were also concerns that posting copies of the letter would be perceived as union organizing and that cameras in the SpaceX building would reveal who distributed them. Before the landing page got shut down, the writers saw that they got roughly 3,000 unique visitors to their site.

While the document ultimately got 404 signatures, many more people reached out to those who shared the letter on Signal, in person, and through Teams, saying they would sign if they could afford to get fired at the moment, according to a person involved. In 2017, another Musk company, Tesla, fired an employee for distributing pamphlets encouraging employees to unionize. Additionally, in May of this year, Musk also tweeted that Tesla would be forming a “hardcore litigation department” to “directly initiate and execute lawsuits.”

Their fears turned out to be credible, as SpaceX management wound up firing at least five employees for their involvement with the letter. SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell then sent out an email to the company, denouncing the document and informing the company of the terminations.

“We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism — our current leadership team is more dedicated to ensuring we have a great and ever-improving work environment than any I have seen in my 35-year career,” Shotwell wrote. Echoing the letter writers, she claimed that the letter, not Musk’s behavior, was a source of distraction for SpaceX, which has a busy schedule in the days and weeks ahead.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment by The Verge in time for publication.

Shotwell also argued in her email that other employees not involved in the letter had felt uncomfortable, intimidated, and pressured to sign onto the document. However, two of those involved with writing it, speaking on the condition of anonymity, dispute that claim. They say they simply posted the letter to the Teams channels, pointing people to it and asking for support.

“There was no pressure applied to anyone to collect signatures,” one employee who helped craft the letter said, who also wanted to remain anonymous. “The open letter either stands on its own or it doesn’t.”

The news of the employees’ firings has spread throughout the company, and a few current employees have expressed to The Verge their dismay at the actions the company took.

“I do feel like, moving forward, people who don’t 100% agree with Elon will have to keep their mouth shut or leave the company, which is very sad,” one SpaceX employee, who was not involved in the letter, tells The Verge. “We all admire his intelligence but his social behavior is unacceptable, and we find ourselves in a position where we are both proud and ashamed to work for SpaceX.”

An open letter to SpaceX decrying CEO Elon Musk’s recent behavior has sparked open discussion among the company’s employees in an internal chat system. Employees are being encouraged to sign onto the letter’s suggestions, either publicly or anonymously, with a signed version of the letter to be delivered to the desk of SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell.

The letter, reviewed by The Verge, describes how Musk’s actions and the recent allegations of sexual harassment against him are negatively affecting SpaceX’s reputation. The document claims that employees “across the spectra of gender, ethnicity, seniority, and technical roles have collaborated on” writing the letter. It’s not known which SpaceX employees wrote the letter; the employees who posted the letter in the internal chat system have not responded to requests for comment.

“Elon’s behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks,” the letter states. “As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX — every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company. It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values.”

Musk has been doing a lot recently, and his presence on Twitter can be particularly crass. In April, he shared an image of Bill Gates and an emoji of a pregnant man, captioned with “in case u need to lose a boner fast.” Last year, he also responded to a tweet about Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company Blue Origin, saying “Can’t get it up (to orbit) lol.” Musk is also currently attempting to buy Twitter.

Shared on Wednesday in an internal SpaceX Microsoft Teams channel with more than 2,600 employees, the letter argues that the company is not living up to its oft-stated “No Asshole” policy and its zero-tolerance sexual harassment policy. The document goes on to suggest three different “action items” to address the situation: SpaceX should “publicly address and condemn Elon’s harmful Twitter behavior”; the company should “hold all leadership equally accountable” for bad behavior; and SpaceX needs to “clearly define what exactly is intended by SpaceX’s ‘no-asshole’ and ‘zero tolerance’ policies and enforce them consistently.”

The number of signatures was not immediately available, but employees were asked to sign onto the letter by filling out a survey or scanning a QR code. The letter generated more than a hundred comments in the Teams channel, with many employees agreeing to the spirit of the missive, according to screenshots of the chat shared by two sources who spoke with The Verge and asked to remain anonymous. Some commenters also claimed to be embarrassed by Musk’s behavior. Others expressed a desire for the company to better address executive leadership behavior as well as sexual harassment complaints.

The letter comes nearly a month after a report from Insider alleged that SpaceX paid a former company flight attendant a $250,000 settlement after she accused Musk of exposing himself to her and propositioning her during a massage, an allegation that involved Musk offering to buy her a horse. Musk denied the allegations, telling Insider there is “a lot more to this story.”

“If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light,” he told the outlet. On Twitter, Musk joked about the story in a tweet reply: “Hi Chad, long time no see! Fine, if you touch my wiener, you can have a horse.”

After the story came out, Shotwell sent a company-wide email to SpaceX employees defending Musk. “Personally, I believe the allegations to be false; not because I work for Elon, but because I have worked closely with him for 20 years and never seen nor heard anything resembling these allegations,” Shotwell wrote. “Anyone who knows Elon like I do, knows he would never conduct or condone this alleged inappropriate behavior.”

This isn’t the first time that the topic of sexual harassment at SpaceX has surfaced. In December, a former SpaceX employee wrote an essay on the platform Lioness detailing her experience with what she described as pervasive sexual harassment at the company. She also criticized SpaceX’s HR response to her complaints. The Verge spoke with four additional former SpaceX employees at the time, all of whom argued that the company’s HR department improperly handled harassment complaints. Before the story came out, Shotwell emailed the company reiterating the “No Asshole” policy.

“We also know we can always do better,” Shotwell wrote in December. “That is why HR has been soliciting feedback from groups across the company to ensure the process is effective. HR will also conduct an internal audit, followed by a third-party audit.”

A copy of the letter can be read below:

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An open letter to the Executives of SpaceX,

In light of recent allegations against our CEO and his public disparagement of the situation, we would like to deliver feedback on how these events affect our company’s reputation, and through it, our mission. Employees across the spectra of gender, ethnicity, seniority, and technical roles have collaborated on this letter. We feel it is imperative to maintain honest and open dialogue with each other to effectively reach our company’s primary goals together: making SpaceX a great place to work for all, and making humans a multiplanetary species.

As SpaceX employees we are expected to challenge established processes, rapidly innovate to solve complex problems as a team, and use failures as learning opportunities. Commitment to these ideals is fundamental to our identity and is core to how we have redefined our industry. But for all our technical achievements, SpaceX fails to apply these principles to the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion with equal priority across the company, resulting in a workplace culture that remains firmly rooted in the status quo.

Individuals and groups of employees at SpaceX have spent significant effort beyond their technical scope to make the company a more inclusive space via conference recruiting, open forums, feedback to leadership, outreach, and more. However, we feel an unequal burden to carry this effort as the company has not applied appropriate urgency and resources to the problem in a manner consistent with our approach to critical path technical projects. To be clear: recent events are not isolated incidents; they are emblematic of a wider culture that underserves many of the people who enable SpaceX’s extraordinary accomplishments. As industry leaders, we bear unique responsibility to address this.

Elon’s behavior in the public sphere is a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us, particularly in recent weeks. As our CEO and most prominent spokesperson, Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX—every Tweet that Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company. It is critical to make clear to our teams and to our potential talent pool that his messaging does not reflect our work, our mission, or our values.

SpaceX’s current systems and culture do not live up to its stated values, as many employees continue to experience unequal enforcement of our oft-repeated “No Asshole” and “Zero Tolerance” policies. This must change. As a starting point, we are putting forth the following categories of action items, the specifics of which we would like to discuss in person with the executive team within a month:

Publicly address and condemn Elon’s harmful Twitter behavior. SpaceX must swiftly and explicitly separate itself from Elon’s personal brand.

Hold all leadership equally accountable to making SpaceX a great place to work for everyone. Apply a critical eye to issues that prevent employees from fully performing their jobs and meeting their potential, pursuing specific and enduring actions that are well resourced, transparent, and treated with the same rigor and urgency as establishing flight rationale after a hardware anomaly.

Define and uniformly respond to all forms of unacceptable behavior. Clearly define what exactly is intended by SpaceX’s “no-asshole” and “zero tolerance” policies and enforce them consistently. SpaceX must establish safe avenues for reporting and uphold clear repercussions for all unacceptable behavior, whether from the CEO or an employee starting their first day.

We care deeply about SpaceX’s mission to make humanity multiplanetary. But more importantly, we care about each other. The collaboration we need to make life multiplanetary is incompatible with a culture that treats employees as consumable resources. Our unique position requires us to consider how our actions today will shape the experiences of individuals beyond our planet. Is the culture we are fostering now the one which we aim to bring to Mars and beyond?

We have made strides in that direction, but there is so much more to accomplish.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has determined that SpaceX’s plans for the company’s massive Starbase launch site in South Texas will have some environmental impact on the surrounding land and area — but not enough to require a full environmental impact statement. Now, SpaceX will need to make more than 75 changes to its proposal for the Starbase facility if the company wants to avoid additional review and eventually receive a license from the FAA to launch its new Starship rocket to orbit from the site.

SpaceX’s Starbase facility is located in a small town called Boca Chica, Texas, right on the southern tip of Texas along the Rio Grande river and the US-Mexico border. For the last few years, SpaceX has used the site to construct full-scale prototypes of Starship, the company’s next-generation monster rocket designed to take people and cargo to deep-space destinations like the Moon and Mars. SpaceX has already conducted various high-altitude test flights with Starship prototypes from Starbase, but now, the company hopes to actually launch Starship to space for the first time and send the vehicle to orbit.

In order to launch Starship to orbit from Starbase, SpaceX first needs a launch license from the FAA. And the fate of SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica has been hanging in the balance for the last year and a half as the FAA has been conducting an environmental review of how the company’s launch operations would impact the surrounding area. Now, with a decision made, SpaceX will need to address the more than 75 actions that the FAA has listed in order for the company to lessen its environmental impact on the area. If SpaceX makes those changes, it should help pave the way for the company to receive a launch license for Starship, though that still isn’t guaranteed.

SpaceX indicated on Twitter that it sees the decision as good news for moving forward with its launch plans.

SpaceX didn’t originally plan to launch its future Moon and Mars rocket from Texas. SpaceX purchased its first piece of land in Boca Chica back in 2012 with the intent to create a purely commercial launch site where the company could launch its much smaller Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. Ultimately SpaceX envisioned launching up to 12 times a year from the area, away from the hustle and bustle of its much busier launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida. With that goal in mind, the FAA conducted a full environmental review of SpaceX’s plans, and in 2014, the agency published an environmental impact statement, or EIS, detailing how those smaller launches would affect the area. An EIS can take many months and often years to complete, as it requires interviewing experts, scientists, business officials, and residents as well as conducting rigorous analysis and research about how a proposed action will impact the nearby human environment.

However, SpaceX’s plans have significantly changed since that first EIS was published. Beginning in 2018, the company seriously ramped up production activities in Boca Chica after deciding to devote the South Texas facility solely to the production of Starship prototypes. The more modest commercial launch facility that SpaceX once imagined has morphed into a thriving installation, filled with massive warehouses and tents and dominated by round-the-clock construction conducted by thousands of employees.

As SpaceX’s presence in the area grew, the company also began conducting high-altitude flight tests with its Starship prototypes — launching the vehicles up to heights around 30,000 to 40,000 feet in the air before attempting to land them back on Earth. Most of those tests ended in fiery explosions, with only one successfully sticking its landing. One prototype blew apart just before it was supposed to land in March 2021, spreading metal debris across the nearby wildlife refuge.

The test flights, combined with ongoing construction and ground testing, have led to growing tension with the nearby community. Starbase is situated next to a small neighborhood of a couple dozen homes called Boca Chica Village, which is only really accessible via one lone state highway that connects to Starbase. That road is frequently closed during tests and other demonstrations, limiting access to both the village and the nearby beach. Residents also complained of disruption to their daily lives as they were often asked to leave their homes during major tests. Many in Boca Chica Village have sold their properties to SpaceX, though a few residents have held onto their homes.

Finally, in late 2020, the FAA announced that it planned to conduct an environmental review of SpaceX’s plans to launch Starship to orbit from Starbase. In September 2021, the FAA released a draft programmatic environmental assessment, or PEA, laying out SpaceX’s updated plans for the area. The document revealed that, during the ongoing development of Starship, SpaceX plans to conduct up to 20 suborbital launches of Starship a year, sending the vehicle on its own to high altitudes or up to space — but not to orbit — before attempting to land it back on Earth. The company also plans to conduct up to five orbital and / or suborbital launches with Starship a year on top of the Super Heavy booster, a massive rocket that SpaceX is also developing to give Starship the extra thrust it needs to achieve orbit. During these launches, the Super Heavy would also attempt to land back on Earth, either at a landing pad or a platform in the nearby Gulf of Mexico.

Ultimately, SpaceX estimated that it would have to close access to the state highway a total of 500 hours each year for normal operations and an extra 300 hours each year for anomalies. And things would certainly change as SpaceX progressed in its development. SpaceX anticipated that the number of orbital launches would increase over time with suborbital flights decreasing. Beyond the disruption, SpaceX also outlined other major additions to its plans, including the creation of a natural gas pretreatment system to purify methane to be used in the Starship rocket. And there was speculation that SpaceX would need to build a pipeline to transport gas to the plant.

SpaceX has since scrapped its plans for a natural gas pretreatment system, a power plant, and a desalination plant, according to the FAA’s decision released today. The company has also modified the capabilities of its Raptor engine, which is used to propel Starship. Because of these changes, SpaceX doesn’t need as many engines for its vehicles as it previously expected, but the FAA concluded that this wouldn’t discernibly change the environmental impact.

As part of its environmental review, the FAA held a comment period for SpaceX’s proposed plans, which drew both intense criticism and support from members of the public. Many critics demanded that the FAA conduct a new EIS, as the one that was conducted in 2014 was no longer adequate based on SpaceX’s new plans. The FAA said it received more than 18,000 comments during that period, which contributed to prolonging the decision-making process since SpaceX had to draft responses to each of the comments. The FAA also had to consult with various government agencies to make its decision, including the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Park Service, which raised some questions about SpaceX’s potential effects on the area. In a biological opinion given to the FAA, the FWS noted there’s been a decrease in the piping plover population, an endangered bird that nests in Boca Chica, correlated with the increase in SpaceX activity in the area, CNBC reported.

Image: Getty

As part of this decision, the FAA will not conduct another EIS, which will potentially save SpaceX some time as it moves forward with its first orbital launch. But the company still has work to do. The more than 75 actions the FAA listed include things SpaceX can do to address its impact on air quality, sound levels, and access to the nearby beach. The company will need to provide more advanced notice of its launches to local authorities and the general public, for one. SpaceX also cannot conduct road closures during more than a dozen identified holidays, and it can only close the road up to five weekends a year. The FAA also wants SpaceX to continue to monitor for changes to the local wildlife populations, such as the sea turtles that nest in the area. Among other items, it’s asking the company to make donations to local wildlife groups and to monitor and adjust lighting at the launch site to avoid disorienting turtle hatchlings. The full list of mitigation measures can be found here.

Prior to the FAA decision, SpaceX also received a potential blow to its plans in Boca Chica from the Army Corps of Engineers. In March, the Corps informed SpaceX that it was withdrawing the company’s permit application for plans to expand Starbase, citing a lack of requested information provided by the company. SpaceX can reactivate the permit application process by providing the information that the Corps requested, though it’s unclear if and when SpaceX will comply.

Meanwhile, SpaceX has been working on a potential Plan B for Starship. In December, the company began construction on a Starship launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, an area that has been hosting orbital launches for the last half century. SpaceX already operates two launchpads out of the area for its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. However, SpaceX plans to build its Starship launch site very close to the pad it uses to send humans to the International Space Station, and NASA wants the company to come up with a plan to make sure any Starship explosions don’t put that operational launchpad at risk, Reuters reported.

Though today’s news may sound like a win for SpaceX’s plans in Texas, the company still needs to receive a license from the FAA to launch its first Starship vehicle to orbit from the area. The FAA stressed that this decision does not mean that SpaceX will necessarily receive that license, as the company still must comply with all of the safety requirements needed to be approved for launch. Still, there is incentive to move things along. SpaceX is contracted by NASA to develop Starship as a lunar lander that can take people to and from the surface of the Moon for the agency’s Artemis program. NASA hopes to conduct the first landing as soon as 2025, and if SpaceX is going to get anywhere near that date, it needs to show that Starship can make it to space relatively soon.

Today, when asked about Elon Musk’s pessimistic attitude toward the economy, President Joe Biden made a dismissive little quip: “Lots of luck on his trip to the Moon.” It’s a funny aside — but there’s one tiny hitch. Technically, a good chunk of SpaceX’s funding to return people to the Moon comes from the Biden administration.

Biden was asked about Musk’s opinions today during a press conference at the White House. Specifically, a reporter wanted to know what Biden would say to the Tesla and SpaceX CEO “around his feeling about the economy.” The question was in reference to a recent report that Tesla would be freezing hiring and cutting its workforce by 10 percent because of Musk’s “super bad feeling” about the economy, according to an email he wrote to Tesla executives.

In response, Biden listed off companies like Ford, Stellantis, and IBM that are making investments in the US at the moment, before making his Moon comment. But here’s the thing: SpaceX’s “trip to the Moon” is a key part of NASA’s Artemis mission, the space agency’s initiative to send the first woman and the first person of color to the lunar surface. Artemis was a creation under the Trump administration, but it was one of the few programs that survived the transition of power. And in 2021, Biden’s NASA selected SpaceX to develop the company’s next-generation rocket, called Starship, as a lunar lander for Artemis. The agency awarded the company $2.9 billion to turn Starship into a vehicle that can transport humans to and from the lunar surface, and as of now, the plan is for SpaceX to conduct the first Artemis landing as early as 2025.

So, the Biden administration should definitely hope SpaceX has good luck with its Moon trip, seeing as it’s a critical part of NASA’s flagship human spaceflight program. Perhaps Biden’s comment was completely genuine in that way? In any case, Musk has since responded:

To be fair, there’s precedent of presidents making space-related gaffes. President Trump didn’t quite understand the Artemis program that his administration started either. And it’s also something that perhaps the general public doesn’t really keep tabs on. During a recent episode of Jeopardy, contestants were provided with the $1,000 clue that read as follows: “The NASA program named for this sister of Apollo looks to land a woman (& a man) on the Moon by 2024.” None of the three contestants knew the answer.

SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell sent a company-wide email last week responding to a report of allegations of sexual assault against CEO Elon Musk, claiming she doesn’t believe the allegations to be true. The email, first reported by CNBC and reviewed by The Verge, also reiterated that SpaceX has a “ZERO tolerance” policy for harassment.

“Personally, I believe the allegations to be false; not because I work for Elon, but because I have worked closely with him for 20 years and never seen nor heard anything resembling these allegations,” Shotwell wrote in the email. “Anyone who knows Elon like I do, knows he would never conduct or condone this alleged inappropriate behavior.”

Last week, Business Insider published a report alleging that SpaceX had paid a former company flight attendant $250,000 after she accused Musk of exposing himself and propositioning her while giving him a massage. Musk has since denied the allegations, though he told Insider that there is “a lot more to this story” while also calling the article a “politically motivated hit piece.”

“If I were inclined to engage in sexual harassment, this is unlikely to be the first time in my entire 30-year career that it comes to light,” Musk told Business Insider.

In her email to company employees, titled “The recent news story,” Shotwell argued that “every accusation of harassment is taken very seriously, regardless of who is involved” and that SpaceX HR investigates all the claims it receives. She did not mention the alleged $250,000 payment. “For privacy reasons I will never comment on any legal matters involving employment issues,” Shotwell wrote.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment by The Verge in time for publication.

SpaceX has a “no A-hole” policy when it comes to employee behavior. However, in December, a former SpaceX employee wrote an essay in Lioness alleging she had been the target of rampant sexual harassment at the company and that HR did little to address her claims. The Verge also spoke with four additional former SpaceX employees who backed up the essay and described a culture of sexual harassment that was poorly handled by HR.

A few days prior to the essay’s publication, Shotwell emailed SpaceX employees about the company’s “zero-tolerance” policy against harassment and “no A-hole policy.” She also encouraged employees to come forward if they had experienced harassment.

“Timely reporting of harassment is key to our maintaining SpaceX as a great place to work; we can’t fix what we don’t know,” Shotwell wrote in the email sent in December. “If you are aware of, or experience any acts of harassment or discrimination, report it to your manager or any HR representative.”

However, she noted that the company could improve its HR practices. “We also know we can always do better,” Shotwell wrote in the December email. “That is why HR has been soliciting feedback from groups across the company to ensure the process is effective. HR will also conduct an internal audit, followed by a third-party audit.”

Four astronauts successfully returned home to Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft today, bringing an end to their six-month-long stay on the International Space Station (ISS). After undocking from the ISS early Thursday morning, the crew dove through Earth’s atmosphere before splashing down underneath parachutes off the coast of Florida at 12:43 AM ET.

On board the Crew Dragon were three NASA astronauts — Tom Marshburn, Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron — as well as German astronaut Matthias Maurer with the European Space Agency. The astronauts, part of a mission called Crew-3, launched to space in the same Crew Dragon back in November. Since docking with the ISS, they’ve been living and working on the orbiting lab, conducting science experiments and maintaining the station through spacewalks.

The Crew-3 astronauts have had a rather eventful stay in space, too. Shortly after they arrived at the ISS, Russia destroyed one of its own satellites with a ground-based missile, creating a cloud of debris that initially threatened the integrity of the space station. Immediately following the satellite’s destruction, the Crew-3 astronauts and Russian cosmonauts aboard the ISS had to shelter inside their spacecraft in case the resulting debris damaged the space station and they needed to make a quick getaway. Fortunately for the station inhabitants, the debris did not harm the ISS, and the crew was able to return to a normal work schedule.

A few months after that incident, Russia then invaded Ukraine, increasing tensions between the United States and Russia on Earth. That led many to question the stability of the ISS partnership between NASA and Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, and there were concerns that operations on board the space station might be affected. Ultimately the Crew-3 astronauts continued their work as planned along with their Russian colleagues, and they even welcomed a new crew of Russian cosmonauts to the station in March. While the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, continues to hint about a possible end to Russia’s ISS agreement, NASA administrator Bill Nelson assured Congress on May 3rd that it was business as usual on board the ISS and that Russia has not yet pulled out of the partnership.

Crew-3’s safe return marks the end of another routine human spaceflight mission to the ISS for both SpaceX and NASA. SpaceX holds a contract with NASA to periodically send astronauts to and from the International Space Station, part of an initiative called the Commercial Crew Program. Crew-3 was SpaceX’s third operation mission to the ISS for NASA as well as the company’s eighth time launching astronauts to space.

Now that Crew-3 is safely back on Earth, SpaceX and NASA’s next mission will begin in earnest. On April 27th, three NASA astronauts and an Italian astronaut with the European Space Agency launched to the ISS on another Crew Dragon, part of SpaceX’s Crew-4 mission. The Crew-3 astronauts were on board to greet them and help familiarize them with the ISS. The Crew-4 astronauts are slated to remain on the ISS until the fall.

Update April 27th, 4:18AM ET: SpaceX successfully launched the crew from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 3:52AM ET. The astronauts will now spend roughly 17 hours en route to the ISS, and are due to dock with the space station at around 8:15PM ET, reports Reuters.

Original Story: In the early morning hours, SpaceX is set to launch its seventh crewed mission to orbit, this time sending three NASA astronauts and an Italian astronaut to the International Space Station. Their launch will spark the beginning of a six-month stay on board the ISS, part of SpaceX’s commitment to NASA to periodically fly astronauts to and from the orbiting lab.

The mission, called Crew-4, is SpaceX’s fourth operational human spaceflight mission to the ISS for NASA. The company has been flying NASA astronauts to the space station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, an initiative to use privately made spacecraft to ferry crews to low Earth orbit. SpaceX launched its first crew to the ISS on the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft in 2020 and has been getting into a steady rhythm with follow-up crewed missions ever since.

On board this flight are two veteran flyers: NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti from the European Space Agency, who have both visited the International Space Station before. They’ll be joined by two rookie flyers for this trip, including NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Bob Hines, both of whom were selected to be astronauts in 2017. Watkins will also be making history with her flight, as she’ll be the first Black woman to live as a long-term crew member on the space station.

“This is certainly an important milestone, I think both for our agency and for the country,” Watkins said of her flight. “And I think it’s really just a tribute to the legacy of the Black women astronauts that have come before me, as well as to the exciting future ahead. And so I’m honored to be just a small part of that legacy moving forward.”

Image: NASA

Crew-4 is taking place less than two days after SpaceX brought back another crew of four from the space station, though that crew did not include any government flyers. On April 8th, SpaceX launched four private astronauts to the ISS on a Crew Dragon for the commercial aerospace company Axiom Space, which has contracted with SpaceX to launch a series of human spaceflight missions to the space station. The majority of the Axiom flyers each paid a reported $55 million for their seat on the Crew Dragon, agreeing to conduct experiments while aboard the station and helping Axiom develop protocols for launching people to private space stations in the future.

The Axiom astronauts were supposed to return to Earth after an eight-day visit to the ISS, but their journey home was delayed by a week due to bad weather around Florida where they needed to splashdown. As the Axiom flight stretched, NASA had to push back the launch of Crew-4, as the agency wanted about two days to get ready between splashdown and launch. Finally, the Axiom crew was able to come home on Monday afternoon, paving the way for Crew-4 to launch on Wednesday morning.

Once Crew-4 is at the space station, they’ll join three Russian cosmonauts, three NASA astronauts, and a German astronaut from the European Space Agency already living on the ISS. The NASA astronauts and ESA astronaut will help familiarize the incoming crew with the ISS before returning home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon of their own. They’re part of NASA and SpaceX’s Crew-3 mission, which launched to the space station in November and is now coming to an end.

Crew-4 is set to launch at 3:52AM ET on top of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket out of the company’s launchpad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. NASA plans to provide launch coverage starting at midnight ET on Wednesday morning.

The first crew of private astronauts to visit the International Space Station have successfully returned to Earth, splashing down off the coast of Florida soon after 1PM ET. Their return marks the end of a 15-day mission to the ISS, a trip that cost the crew a reported $55 million per ticket.

This mission, dubbed Ax-1, was the first human spaceflight mission for Axiom Space, a private aerospace company that plans to build commercial space stations in the future. Axiom contracted with SpaceX to send a crew of four to the International Space Station on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, calling it a precursor mission to prepare for sending people to Axiom’s space stations in the future.

The Ax-1 crew’s visit to the space station was supposed to last just eight days, and their itinerary was filled with conducting 25 science experiments while on board. However, their return trip home was continually delayed due to bad weather surrounding Florida and the capsule’s potential splashdown zones. As a result, the crew stayed nearly a week longer than originally planned before finally undocking in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon on Sunday, April 24th.

The Ax-1 crew included Canadian investor Mark Pathy, American real estate investor Larry Connor, and former Israeli Air Force pilot Eytan Stibbe. The commander of their crew was former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, who is now a vice president at Axiom.