SpaceX to play big in 2023 while Musk focused on Twitter

One is hitting its numbers; the other keeps missing expectations. One is raising money at an ever-rising valuation; the other has been pummeled by the market. One has a highly capable No. 2 executive keeping it on track; the other is under fire about succession planning.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Tesla Inc. both count Elon Musk as chief executive officer. But whereas Tesla has withered since the boss embarked on his takeover of Twitter Inc., SpaceX is flourishing — some even suggest that this is because of, rather than in spite of, its CEO playing a less-active role.

SpaceX is preparing for a watershed year, aiming for as many as 100 flights. That pace of one roughly every three and a half days compares to the every-six-days clip the company pulled off in 2022, according to Bloomberg.

As soon as March, it will attempt the first-ever commercial spacewalk, where astronauts will dangle from a Dragon vessel approximately 700 kilometres (435 miles) above Earth. And it will soon try to reach orbit for the first time with what it hails as the most powerful rocket ever: Starship, the launch vehicle intended to one day reach the moon and Mars.

The closely held company recently valued at around $140 billion has been girding for all this activity with its less-present CEO delegating more to Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer. Since closing his Twitter acquisition in late October, Musk has been preoccupied with fixing operations and engineering issues at the San Francisco-based social media company, diminishing his involvement in day-to-day matters at SpaceX, according to current and former employees who asked not to be identified.

These people describe Musk as much more instrumental in setting the long-term vision for the company, including its goal to get to Mars. They say the CEO’s daily attention isn’t necessary — workflow for Falcon 9 launches, for example, has become fairly standardized over the years — and that when Musk’s focus is elsewhere, there’s some semblance of calm.

SpaceX and Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment for this story.