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BOCA CHICA, TEXAS - Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Thursday launched its next-generation Starship cruise vessel for the first time atop the company’s powerful new Super Heavy rocket, but the uncrewed test flight ended minutes later with the vehicle exploding in the sky. While the two-stage rocket ship failed to make it beyond an altitude of 32km, SpaceX officials cheered the outcome for achieving the test flight’s primary objective of getting the new spacecraft off the ground in what appeared to be an otherwise clean lift-off. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) chief Bill Nelson tweeted: “Congrats to @SpaceX on Starship’s first integrated flight test! Every great achievement throughout history has demanded some level of calculated risk, because with great risk, comes great reward. Looking forward to all that SpaceX learns, to the next flight test – and beyond.” The two-stage rocket ship, standing taller than the Statue of Liberty at 120m, blasted off from the company’s Starbase spaceport east of Brownsville, Texas, for what SpaceX hoped, at best, would be a 90-minute debut flight into space but just shy of Earth’s orbit. A live SpaceX webcast of the lift-off showed the rocket ship rising from the Gulf Coast launch tower into the morning sky over the southern tip of Texas as the Super Heavy’s Raptor engines roared to life in a ball of flames and billowing clouds of exhaust and water vapour. But less than four minutes into the flight, the upper-stage Starship failed to separate from the lower-stage Super Heavy as designed, and the combined vehicle was seen tumbling end over end before exploding. The spacecraft reached a peak altitude of nearly 32km before its fiery disintegration. A senior Federal Aviation Administration source said the spacecraft’s automated flight-termination appears likely to have been activated, triggering the rocket’s disintegration. Nevertheless, SpaceX officials on the webcast hailed the feat of getting the Starship and booster rocket off the launch pad for the first time, declaring the brief episode in that sense to be a successful test flight. A throng of SpaceX workers shown during the webcast, who were watching a live stream together at the company’s headquarters near Los Angeles, cheered wildly as the rocket cleared the launch tower, and again when it blew up in the sky. SpaceX principal integration engineer John Insprucker, serving as one of the webcast commenters, said the test flight would provide a wealth of important data, paving the way for the company to move ahead with additional tests. Mr Musk, founder, chief executive and chief engineer of SpaceX, said on Twitter that the next Starship test launch would be “in a few months”. “Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months,” he tweeted. Mr Musk, who purchased Twitter in 2022 for US$44 billion (S$59 billion), is also CEO of electric carmaker Tesla. Beyond the launch itself, the test mission fell short of reaching several other objectives, such as deploying the Starship vessel into space and re-entering Earth’s atmosphere 97km off a Hawaiian coast at hypersonic speeds, where it would have faced key aerodynamic forces and blazing heat before plunging into the Pacific. Still, getting the newly combined Starship and booster rocket off the ground for the first time represented a key milestone in SpaceX’s ambition of sending astronauts back to the Moon and ultimately on to Mars, as a major partner in Nasa’s newly inaugurated human spaceflight programme, Artemis. REUTERS

<Elon Musk Frantically Warns Employees of Potential SpaceX Bankruptcy Musk advised employees to work over the weekend after reading Raptor engine production issues were far worse than previously thought. Image: Win McNamee (Getty Images) SpaceX employees received a nightmare email over the holiday weekend from CEO Elon Musk, warning them of a brewing crisis with its Raptor engine production that, if unsolved, could result in the company’s bankruptcy. The email, obtained by SpaceExplored, CNBC, and The Verge, urged employees to work over the weekend in a desperate attempt to increase production of the engine meant to power its next-generation Starship launch vehicle. “Unfortunately, the Raptor production crisis is much worse than it seemed a few weeks ago,” Musk reportedly wrote. “As we have dug into the issues following exiting prior senior management, they have unfortunately turned out to be far more severe than was reported. There is no way to sugarcoat this.” SpaceX did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment but Musk did Tweet about the report Tuesday afternoon. “The magnitude of the Starship program is not widely appreciated” Musk tweeted. “It is designed to extend life to Mars (and the moon), which requires ~1000 times more payload to orbit than all current Earth rockets combined.” Though Musk did not confirm or deny the email’s veracity he spoke to its content saying that, while he did not believe bankruptcy was likely, it wasn’t impossible either. The CEO went on to apparently quote Intel founder and former CEO Andrew Grove, writing “only the paranoid survive.” In his email, Musk advised workers to cut their holiday weekend short and called for an “all hands on deck to recover from what is, quite frankly, a disaster.” Summing up the problem, Musk warned the company could face bankruptcy if it could not get Starship flights running once every two weeks in 2022. If all of this sounds familiar, that’s because Musk has previously spoken publicly about times where both SpaceX and Tesla were on the verge of bankruptcy in their early years. More recently Musk claimed Tesla came within “single digits” of bankruptcy as recent as 2018. Raptor’s engine is a critical component of Starship, which SpaceX hopes will one-day transport cargo and people to the moon and Mars. Starship’s ability to meet these ambitious goals is critical to SpaceX’s long-term success which is built upon Elon Musk’s promise of multi-planetary human exploration. According to Musk’s email, Starship will also play a critical role in launching Starlink’s next-generation satellites into orbit. Musk’s stressed-out email follows a tweet earlier this month where the CEO admitted the Raptor 2 would need a “complete design overhaul” to make multi-planetary life possible. Not long after that, two SpaceX vice presidents abruptly left the company according to CNBC. One of those executives, Will Heltsley, who had been at the company since 2009, was working on the Raptor project but was taken off due to a lack of progress. The alarming news comes near the close of what’s been an otherwise stellar year for SpaceX. In 11 months SpaceX managed to launch 25 successful Falcon 9 missions, sent a dozen astronauts to space and drew a roadmap to mass commercialization with its Starlink satellite internet service. You can read the full email over at The Verge.>

https://www.reuters.com/business/elon-musk-says-he-will-buy-manchester-united-2022-08-17/ Elon Musk says he is buying Manchester United August 17, 20229:49 AM GMT+8 Aug 16 (Reuters) - Elon Musk, the world's richest person, on Tuesday tweeted that he was buying football club Manchester United Plc (MANU.N), without offering any details. Musk has a history of being unconventional and making irreverent tweets, and it was not immediately clear whether he planned to pursue a deal to secure Manchester United. "I'm buying Manchester United ur welcome," Musk said in a tweet. The team is controlled by the American Glazer family. Neither the family nor Musk immediately responded to a request for comment. British newspaper The Daily Mirror reported last year that the Glazers were prepared to sell the club but only if they were offered in excess of 4 billion pounds.($4.84 billion) Musk is currently trying to exit a $44 billion agreement to buy the social media company, which has taken him to court. Manchester United is one of the world's best supported football clubs. They have been champions of England a record 20 times and have won the European Cup, the most prestigious club competition in the global game, three times. Dissatisfaction among fans at the Glazers' perceived lack of ambition to bring in top players intensified after the club finished sixth in the English Premier League last season, while crosstown rivals Manchester City won a second successive title. The football club had a market capitalisation of $2.08 billion, as of Tuesday's stock market close. Manchester United fans have in recent years protested against the Glazers, who bought the club for 790 million pounds ($955.51 million) in 2005, due to the team's struggles on the pitch. The anti-Glazer movement gained momentum last year after United were involved in a failed attempt to form a breakaway European Super League. Some fans have urged Musk to buy Manchester United instead of buying Twitter. Musk has a history of unconventional actions and comments, making it difficult sometimes to tell when he is joking. His ambitions range from colonising Mars to creating a new sustainable energy economy, and in the process he has built the most valuable car company in the world, electric vehicle maker Tesla, rocket company SpaceX, and a slew of smaller firms. One is a tunnel maker called the Boring Company. Musk has appeared to smoke marijuana in a podcast and fought U.S. regulators over his comments about his plans for Tesla, including an abandoned effort to take it private. Forbes estimates his fortune at $270 billion. ($1=0.8268 pounds)

SEC settles charges with Tesla's Elon Musk, will remain as CEO but relinquish chairman role and pay stiff finehttps://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/29/sec-settles-charges-with-teslas-elon-musk-will-remain-as-ceo.html The SEC settled charges with Tesla over Elon Musk's bid to take the company private on Saturday. As part of the settlement, Musk and Tesla will pay $20 million each, and the billionaire will step down as chairman of the board. The Securities and Exchange Commission settled charges withTesla CEO Elon Musk over his aborted bid to take the company private, with the billionaire remaining as the helm of the company but relinquishing his chairman title and getting slapped with a hefty fine. The SEC's enforcement action brings to a conclusion a saga which began in early August, when Musk announced via Twitter that he had secured enough funding for a massive private buyout of Tesla. The SEC complaint alleged that in doing so, Musk issued "false and misleading" statements, and failed to properly notify regulators of material company events. Under the deal's terms, Musk and Tesla neither admit or deny wrongdoing alleged by regulators. "This matter reaffirms an important principle embodied in our disclosure-based federal securities laws," SEC chairman Jay Clayton said in a statement. "Specifically, when companies and corporate insiders make statements, they must act responsibly, including endeavoring to ensure the statements are not false or misleading and do not omit information a reasonable investor would consider important in making an investment decision," Clayton added. As part of the settlement, which is still subject to court approval, Musk will also pay a civil penalty of $20 million and give up his role as chairman of the board for at least three years. Additionally, the SEC imposed a $20 million fine on Tesla itself, which will also be expected to appoint two new independent directors to the board, and institute sweeping governance changes. "Musk tweeted on August 7, 2018 that he could take Tesla private at $420 per share — a substantial premium to its trading price at the time — that funding for the transaction had been secured, and that the only remaining uncertainty was a shareholder vote," regulators said on Saturday. However, "in truth, Musk knew that the potential transaction was uncertain and subject to numerous contingencies. Musk had not discussed specific deal terms, including price, with any potential financing partners, and his statements about the possible transaction lacked an adequate basis in fact," they added. On the day Musk made the surprise announcement, Tesla's stock surged by over six percent — catching off guard the bearish class of investors with whom the billionaire has crossed swords in the past. 'The quickest settlement in history' The swiftness with which a deal was announced on Saturday was striking. A provisional settlement between the SEC and Tesla reportedly fell apart on Thursday, which led to regulators summarily filing suit. Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, said it may very well be "the quickest SEC settlement in history," and one that allows both sides to claim a semblance of victory. According to Tobias, it appeard that "it was better for each to compromise and not drag out this dispute. All secured something they wanted and gave up something." With securities regulators frequently criticized for not imposing tighter regulation on companies, a Tesla settlement allows the SEC to look like "a strict enforcer that is protecting shareholders," Tobias said to CNBC in an email. "Musk/Tesla continue to operate a successful company and perhaps behave better in the future. All are spared litigation costs and the bad publicity that could flow from prolonged litigation." Indeed, in recent days, some investors — many of whom have been wiling to discount Musk's unconventional style in favor of his perceived vision — had begun to bail on the stock. Tesla's shares, traded on the Nasdaq, closed down around 14 percent on Friday at $264, as Wall Street begun to fret over the company's ability to raise needed capital. Meanwhile, the company bonds had been falling recently, with $1.3 billion in debt coming due by March 2019. A widely circulated New York Times interview last month, in which Musk detailed the "excruciating" personal toll of running the company, set off alarm bells and led to talk of Tesla's directors getting him a second-in-command. Meanwhile, a steady stream of staff and executive departures have added to the sense of internal turmoil. Musk's prolific use of Twitter has created several high-profile headaches for him personally, as well as the company he founded. In settling the charges, regulators faulted Tesla for not exerting more control over Musk's tweeting. "The SEC also today charged Tesla with failing to have required disclosure controls and procedures relating to Musk's tweets, a charge that Tesla has agreed to settle," the agency said in a statement. "The settlements, which are subject to court approval, will result in comprehensive corporate governance and other reforms at Tesla — including Musk's removal as Chairman of the Tesla board—and the payment by Musk and Tesla of financial penalties," it added. Musk's fierce war of words against short-sellers, or investors betting on the company's stock to fall, was one of the reasons he cited when he first floated the idea of Tesla going dark. In settling with Musk, the SEC said Tesla's board would be expected to "oversee" its founder's communications with investors. "The resolution is intended to prevent further market disruption and harm to Tesla's shareholders," added Steven Peikin, co-director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, in a statement.