SpaceX CEO Musk's security clearance under review over pot use - official

 

SpaceX founder Elon Musk looks on at a post-launch news conference after the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft, lifted off on an uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., March 2, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake

 

(Reuters) - SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk's security clearance is being reviewed by the Pentagon after the billionaire smoked marijuana on a California comedian's podcast in September, a U.S. official said on Thursday.

 

An incident report was started by the Pentagon some time after the marijuana event, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The review was first reported by Bloomberg.

 

Musk has a security clearance as SpaceX provides satellite launch services to the U.S. government. An unmanned capsule from the company was due to return to earth on Friday after a short-term stay on the International Space Station, part of NASA's long-delayed quest to resume human space flight from U.S. soil later this year.

 

"For privacy and security reasons, we do not publicly discuss individual clearance status," said Lieutenant Colonel Mike Andrews, a Pentagon spokesman.

 

Musk, who is also the CEO of electric carmaker Tesla Inc, has refiled his SF-86 security form, which requires a federal employee or contractor seeking a clearance to acknowledge any illegal drug use over the previous seven years, according to the Bloomberg report, which said the review has not impacted SpaceX.

 

The U.S. Air Force in September said reports that it was reviewing his security clearance were inaccurate.

 

In September, Musk provoked a Twitter storm by smoking pot, drinking whiskey and wielding a sword on a live web show with comedian Joe Rogan.

 

SpaceX declined to comment. Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

 

The electric carmaker's shares pared gains and were lower in late afternoon trading.

 

(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru and Mike Stone in Washington; editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Bill Rigby)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-03-08

What a state the US is in. The government is questioning the security clearance of perhaps our greatest living hero, an innovator the likes of which we have never seen, and who is doing more for the US government that most government officials, a man who is radically transforming transportation underground, above ground, and in space; and at the same time, Trump orders the US government to give his completely inexperienced, useless, snotty nosed rich boy and self-dealing son-in-law top secret security clearance.  

There are a few on here who have no respect for the guy, me included, but the next few hours will show if SpaceX is viable and something the US and NASA badly needs.

 

But when someone participates in illegal activity they leave themselves open to blackmail, and with also a number of Twitter gaffs that demonstrates the guy can not keep his mouth shut does make him a security risk.

4 hours ago, keemapoot said:

What a state the US is in. The government is questioning the security clearance of perhaps our greatest living hero, an innovator the likes of which we have never seen, and who is doing more for the US government that most government officials, a man who is radically transforming transportation underground, above ground, and in space; and at the same time, Trump orders the US government to give his completely inexperienced, useless, snotty nosed rich boy and self-dealing son-in-law top secret security clearance.  

 

Your obvious dislike for Trump and his family is your personal choice. A choice shared by many.

 

But your hyperbolic praise and elevation of the self centered egotistical attention seeking person this report is about is a view I doubt shared by many.

 
Your obvious dislike for Trump and his family is your personal choice. A choice shared by many.
 
But your hyperbolic praise and elevation of the self centered egotistical attention seeking person this report is about is a view I doubt shared by many.

I do realize that I do admit his personal life is not much of a model and his cheap behavior during the recent Thailand football team in a cave made him look horrible. But his outstanding contributions to innovation are beyond stunning.


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Off Topic, but anyone interested in SpaceX, it is due to undock from the ISS at 07:30 GMT.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47477617

Edited March 8, 20197 yr by Basil B
Link added

Off Topic, but anyone interested in SpaceX, it is due to undock from the ISS at 07:30 GMT.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47477617

The Boring Company is even more astounding.


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2 minutes ago, keemapoot said:

 

The Boring Company is even more astounding.


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Waiting to see...

US fascists still having problems for pot. in 21st century. in a country where it is legal is some states now!

 

Edited March 8, 20197 yr by Galactus

I don't understand why. Clinton admitted to smoking marijuana (but he claims to not have inhaled, haha) Bush was a recovering alcoholic who used drugs a drank heavily while in university, Obama admits to using marijuana and cocaine in his books before he ran for president (thus he could control the narrative) Why worry about Musk. It is legal in many states and soon to be legal in all states I would think. Just a bunch of fuddy-duddies. 

It's scary to think that anybody in a high enough position of authority to make those types of decisions would equate the use of cannabis with security risks. Only people who seriously think the ridiculous movie Reefer Madness was an accurate portrayal of how weed affects one's mind would utter such nonsense. Do such people really think that of all the gov't contractors and employees with high levels of security none of them use the stuff? If so, that is alarmingly naive. 

Edited March 8, 20197 yr by Inn Between

5 hours ago, Inn Between said:

It's scary to think that anybody in a high enough position of authority to make those types of decisions would equate the use of cannabis with security risks. Only people who seriously think the ridiculous movie Reefer Madness was an accurate portrayal of how weed affects one's mind would utter such nonsense. Do such people really think that of all the gov't contractors and employees with high levels of security none of them use the stuff? If so, that is alarmingly naive. 

 

Well the other thing is his unauthorized tweeting which is a valid concern. He was told by the SEC in a binding contract to not be held in contempt to not tweet without an attorney approving it. Loose lips sink ships. This is what should cause him to be stripped of his security clearance. The fact he goes on Rogan's podcast and makes an utter buffoon of himself doesn't help.

 

He could smoke all the pot he wants but chose to make the risky choice of doing it publicly making a spectacle of himself. The pot isn't really the issue it's the fact the guy is a loose cannon. 

 

Also heard he has to refile saying he does smoke weed. So another strike against him is that he lied on his initial security check.

 

For a short period I held a little TSLA. But the way he operates I don't want the headaches.  This is all a matter of trust and quite a few shareholders felt the same and bailed on TSLA. His own shareholders don't really trust him on a good day.

Edited March 8, 20197 yr by Cryingdick

I don't mind the pot at all, and think it should have no effect on the security clearance.

 

What I do feel is that genius and crazy are close to eachother, and he seems to have slipped from genius to crazy. On that basis his clearance should be revoked IMO.

21 hours ago, keemapoot said:

The Boring Company is even more astounding.

 

 

Time will tell, but a close look at some of their goals reveals some pretty pie-in-the-sky dreams, like being able to drill a mile in under 36 hours.  Present technology drills one mile every 150 days.

 

Both the Loop and Hyperloop are hopes built on some extreme engineering advancements.  If we ever have a thread about that, we can go into specifics.

4 minutes ago, attrayant said:

 

Time will tell, but a close look at some of their goals reveals some pretty pie-in-the-sky dreams, like being able to drill a mile in under 36 hours.  Present technology drills one mile every 150 days.

 

Both the Loop and Hyperloop are hopes built on some extreme engineering advancements.  If we ever have a thread about that, we can go into specifics.

That's the amazing thing about Musk. There hasn't been any real innovation in drilling for a long time. He absolutely and radically disrupted the industry with his first principle thinking, just as he's done in everything else from Tesla to SpaceX.

 

Sure, he may be an a-hole personally, but before he's done he will have disrupted several industries and created amazing jumps in possibilities.  

13 hours ago, attrayant said:

 

Time will tell, but a close look at some of their goals reveals some pretty pie-in-the-sky dreams, like being able to drill a mile in under 36 hours.  Present technology drills one mile every 150 days.

 

Both the Loop and Hyperloop are hopes built on some extreme engineering advancements.  If we ever have a thread about that, we can go into specifics.

I'll tell you what's pie-in-the-sky.......landing the first stage of a space rocket back on Earth........ upright!  All these Leonardo-like prodigies are weird.......if they weren't weird, they wouldn't be launching Tesla's into space.

23 minutes ago, attrayant said:

 

Both the Loop and Hyperloop are hopes built on some extreme engineering advancements.  If we ever have a thread about that, we can go into specifics.

Musk has just rendered these loop projects obsolete dinosaur projects in one fell swoop!

 

Edited March 9, 20197 yr by keemapoot

47 minutes ago, kokesaat said:

I'll tell you what's pie-in-the-sky.......landing the first stage of a space rocket back on Earth........ upright!

 

 

There is no doubt he has some amazing achievements under his belt, but there are some basic, practical issues with The Loop, such as the fact that tire wear & tear is directly related to speed.  With The Loop, the current plan is to have cars run on their existing road tires at 150 mph.  Have you ever watched NASCAR and seen how often they swap out the tires to prevent a blowout?  How many people are going to like spending $200 to replace their tires every couple of months?

 

Maybe the design will change.  Maybe Elon has developed some new formulation of synthetic rubber that lasts years at those speeds.  Who knows.  It's not just the boring challenges - there are many such "little" peripheral issues like this that will have to be solved before The Loop becomes reality.  That's why I said we need to wait and see.

1 hour ago, kokesaat said:

I'll tell you what's pie-in-the-sky.......landing the first stage of a space rocket back on Earth........ upright!

 

 

Not to belabor the point, but:

 

20 Years Ago: Novel DC-X Reusable Rocket Launched Into History

 

"The reusable DC-X rocket stood 39 feet (12 meters) tall and resembled a towering white traffic cone, but was never intended to reach space. It was built by McDonnell Douglas (a company that later merged with Boeing) as part of a technology demonstration program initially spurred by the Department of Defense. After the unmanned rocket made its first successful vertical takeoff and landing on Aug. 18, 1993 — which flew 150 feet (45 m) above the ground — the DC-X flew 11 more times through 1996, demonstrating that a scaled-up version of the single stage to orbit craft could potentially be used to launch routine payloads into low-Earth orbit."

 

I'm sure Musk's engineers have added something to the DC-X and they have made some contributions to rocket science, but let's not pretend that reusable rockets are his brain child.

The full extent of this ridiculousness:

 

1. He took one toke of weed... in a state where weed is legal.
2. He was drinking throughout the podcast, but nobody complained about that.
3. Whatever you think of him, he's one of the brightest minds alive today. Losing his security clearance would be crippling for SpaceX and damaging to NASA.

 

7 hours ago, jcsmith said:

The full extent of this ridiculousness:

 

1. He took one toke of weed... in a state where weed is legal.
2. He was drinking throughout the podcast, but nobody complained about that.
3. Whatever you think of him, he's one of the brightest minds alive today. Losing his security clearance would be crippling for SpaceX and damaging to NASA.

 

4. His ongoing disrespect of the SEC this is the big one. The weed is just a tool to use against him he has "other" issues.

This is just a prime example of laws gone to "pot" (pun intended) in US.

You can collude, you can money launder, you can conduct business while president.

But take a toke of the magic dragon, and the civil service that runs US wants to crucify him.

Musk is not a nice person. In fact the only time he is nice is when he is mellow.

1 hour ago, Prissana Pescud said:

This is just a prime example of laws gone to "pot" (pun intended) in US.

You can collude, you can money launder, you can conduct business while president.

But take a toke of the magic dragon, and the civil service that runs US wants to crucify him.

Musk is not a nice person. In fact the only time he is nice is when he is mellow.

 Musk is actually more laid back than the average TV poster. However he is being held to a much higher standard as a CEO of a publicly traded company and the boss of a private company that deals with national security secrets.

 

I would have edited out the pointless Trump deflection but I think changing a quote is against the rules.

2 hours ago, Cryingdick said:

 Musk is actually more laid back than the average TV poster. However he is being held to a much higher standard as a CEO of a publicly traded company and the boss of a private company that deals with national security secrets.

 

I would have edited out the pointless Trump deflection but I think changing a quote is against the rules.

I am sure you could have quoted the last two lines of my post and no moderator would find fault in that.

The first two lines are not yet proved in a court of law because the outcome of that truth would destroy the little credibility

 that the US now has. I wrote those as yet unproven views in a court of law to show up the almost crazy

way a man can be persecuted by US law for at worst a misdemeanor. 

 I doubt that Musk poses any security threat. It is not he that sent the rocket into space, it is the talented people he employs.

It is not he that holds any secret NASA files. He is the person that got a team together and made a sound business proposition using disruption techniques.

You know that. Let us call it quits, I will talk to my wife about my moniker, you go see an STD clinic about yours.

On 3/8/2019 at 6:49 AM, Baerboxer said:

 

Your obvious dislike for Trump and his family is your personal choice. A choice shared by many.

 

But your hyperbolic praise and elevation of the self centered egotistical attention seeking person this report is about is a view I doubt shared by many.

An incident report was started by the Pentagon some time after the marijuana event, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The review was first reported by Bloomberg.

Posts and reply with only a quote and no content have been removed.  

 

Planetary exploration will be revolutionized once we get warp drive invented.  Or we may discover an herb that allows us to fold time and space.  This could happen any day now. 

 

As for the pot thing, it's now legal in some states of the US.  It is no longer against the law, and no longer bears the caution of "illegal drug use."  That Reefer Madness silliness is long ago...

 

However, if he went home after work and got s___tface drunk every night it wouldn't even bear mentioning.

If he falls face-down on the sidewalk with the press in attendance that's another story.