In a bid to get ahead of this week’s controversy over Elon Musk’s reported drug abuse, SpaceX published an hour-long video of a 2017 staff meeting in which the influence of narcotics was alleged to be responsible for his “cringeworthy” behavior.
The decision to air the footage can be seen as an attempt to offer full transparency into an episode that could risk billions of dollars in government contracts while simultaneously cutting off oxygen to a damaging story from the Wall Street Journal.
On Saturday, the newspaper published a bombshell article claiming witnesses had seen the tycoon take mind-altering substances like ecstasy, LSD, and even psychedelic mushrooms alongside cocaine in front of them, not once but repeatedly over several years. One case even included the supposed participation of a SpaceX board director, Steve Jurvetson.
Musk denies this claim.
“People close to Musk, who is now 52, said his drug use is ongoing, especially his consumption of ketamine,” it wrote. Unnamed sources at SpaceX cited the 2017 SpaceX meeting as one of the earliest examples of his behavior noticeably changing, and he became strangely incomprehensible, rambling on and slurring his words.
SpaceX completed 18 successful missions in 2017, launching flight-proven rockets and spacecrafts for the first time. It was a record-setting year and we were just getting started on our path toward a more exciting future.
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 9, 2024
Watch the full company talk with @elonmusk: pic.twitter.com/L24bWkIBTf
“After the meeting, SpaceX executives privately talked about their worries Musk was on drugs,” the Journal wrote. “One described the event as ‘nonsensical’, ‘unhinged’ and ‘cringeworthy.’”
In the video published by the company late on Monday, Musk does seem to sense he is not firing on all cylinders, confusing a Friday for a Tuesday and telling staff early on, “I got almost no sleep last night, brain still not working properly.”
Later he nudges operations chief Gwynne Shotwell to take over by asking his number two rhetorically whether she had a microphone.
“I’m doing color commentary,” the COO replied, before going on to say at another point in the meeting, “We didn’t practice this, by the way—this comedy routine—it’s all extemporaneous.”
Eventually Musk appears to catch himself, however, and manages to stay on message for the remainder of the meeting.
Musk calls WSJ unfit to line a birdcage
Musk's behavior proves little, however, especially as he has openly talked of his time sleeping at Tesla's California factory to stave off bankruptcy that year amid the Model 3's notorious "production hell."
Moreover, as those who closely follow the tycoon’s public demeanor during presentations or investor calls know, he has a habit of stuttering or darting from one thought to the next in mid-sentence.
The entrepreneur has openly smoked marijuana on Joe Rogan's podcast. Furthermore, Musk’s penchant for incorporating subtle cannabis-related humor, particularly centered on the numerical reference 4/20, remains evident.
But recreational cannabis use has been legalized in several states such as New York.
Musk flatly denied the Journal's claims of narcotics abuse, saying he passed three years of random drug testing after the 2018 Rogan incident.
He then joked he would “definitely take them” if they improved his productivity, before blasting the newspaper as "not fit to line a parrot cage."
Musk is under particular scrutiny since SpaceX is a government contractor to the U.S. space agency NASA with the exclusive right to transport astronauts back and forth to the International Space Station.
The largest private U.S. company, with a value estimated at over $150 billion, is a frequent IPO candidate that aspires to sell consumers point-to-point travel around the earth in under an hour via rocket while also setting up a permanent manned base on Mars.
SpaceX problems
It has, however, recently experienced some setbacks.
In November, its Starship heavy launch vehicle exploded in its second attempt to reach Earth’s orbit. Last week it then received news the company faced a court case into unlawful termination of employees.
