Comments on: Dragon launch abort tests scheduled

By: Dick Eagleson

Dick Eagleson — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 01:05:59 +0000

As to the disgruntled ex-employees, it’s not obvious that what SpaceX did would qualify as a “layoff” under applicable California law. If SpaceX should lose the suit, though, it will hardly be a calamity. And it might result in SpaceX doing employee evaluations on hire date anniversaries and letting underachievers go, piecemeal, throughout the year.

By: Dick Eagleson

Dick Eagleson — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 01:01:37 +0000

Agree about the SpaceX Hawthorne works staying put. Apart from whatever state tax penalties might apply – and I’m not aware that there are any such penalties as part of the tax break in question – SpaceX recently did a sale-leaseback deal for the Hawthorne plant that commits them to remain thru 2023. More germane is that SpaceX is pushing hard to get its Falcon 9 core production rate up to two per month on the way to doing 40 per year. They aren’t going to get there by suddenly moving their plant to Texas.

As to the tax break SpaceX lobbied for, so did Virgin Galactic, Stratolaunch and all the other smaller fry up at Mojave who will also enjoy said break. An industry-preferential tax provision it certainly is, but it’s hardly a custom carve-out for SpaceX alone. “Crony capitalism” is not an accurate description of this tax law change.

By: mpthompson

mpthompson — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 17:19:06 +0000

I doubt we’ll see SpaceX move operations and assembly of the Falcon 9 out of California. The company has been granted some very significant tax incentives to keep those operations in California and there would be significant penalties to the company for moving out of California before 2022. SpaceX is re-learning the meaning of the old saying: If you accept the King’s shilling, you accept the King’s regulations.

As much as I like and respect what Elon Musk is doing for commercial space, he certainly appears to have some crony capitalist tendencies that puts a damper on some of the enthusiasm I have for him.